Dark Side of the Moon
by gotta B writin
Summary: Welcome one and all to Harry's 6th year. It's just another usual Hogwarts year with monsters, Voldemort, Death Eaters, girls, Quidditch, dark magic...oh yeah, and a pissed off Harry. He's tired of being everyone's hero and has decided to become the schoo
1. The Unexpected House Call

Dark Side of the Moon  
  
Chapter One - The Unexpected House Call  
  
Author's Note: I just want to give a HUGE shout out to Ms. J.K. for being a friggin' great writer. I wouldn't be ripping off her ideas if she wasn't right? But as you know, none of these characters are mine, I'm just borrowing and building on them. So, yeah. Enjoy.  
  
A fifteen-year-old boy lay on his back staring at the ceiling above him. His eyes traced over the cracks in the paint and the way they formed figures. He smiled as he saw a bird, then turned his head to the left and discovered a smiling face. The next figure he saw made the grin fade away as the shape of a dog came into his view. He slowly shook his head as he got up from his bed and stared out the window.  
  
All summer long, the boy, Harry Potter, had kept himself busy with holiday homework. By this rate, he would be done with the work by the end of the week, and it was only the first week of July. Though homework wasn't the only thing keeping the boy busy. His Aunt and Uncle were helping him in that area. They no longer antagonized him like they had in the past with physical and verbal abuse. Ever since the meeting between his family and the Order the previous month, the Dursleys had chosen to just ignore his presence unless he was being told to perform a chore around the house.  
  
That was Harry's summer. He would wake up, make his family breakfast, do chores, do his homework, make lunch, do more chores, come in a shower, then make dinner, and then do some more homework. Even though it was a strenuous schedule, Harry wasn't complaining much. Ever since the loss of his Godfather, unrightfully convicted murder Sirius Black, he was eager to do anything that would keep his mind from wandering back to his memories at the ministry only a few months back. So with his current routine, he had most of his homework done. He had also taken to doing extra reading. He was currently rereading all of his second year books, cover to cover. He decided that there was no harm in reviewing any forgotten spells.  
  
In addition, Harry was beginning to slowly change from his short- toothpick boy to a tall and lean young man. All his years of Quidditch, detentions, and chores were finally paying off. His muscles were becoming more defined, and he didn't look unhealthy anymore. Harry had grown a full eight inches since last summer, and was now, he imagined at least, only about three inches shorter than his best friend Ron Weasley. This also improved his wardrobe because his hand-me-downs were now the correct length on him.  
  
Harry had continued writing to his friends, but not as much as he used to. He was now sending an owl to them about once every two weeks. In the beginning, it was one every three or four days, but all the letters were the same. Harry was getting sick of answering how he was doing and saying that he was getting over the fact that his Godfather died, and writing that he wasn't having any dreams about "You-Know-Who". If anything, Harry was becoming annoyed with his friends. He knew that they were just trying to look out for him, but all they were doing was bring back memories and worries that he just didn't want to have anymore.  
  
Hedwig wasn't very happy about her master's choice in mailing. She was becoming bored being stuck in her cage and only being let out every other week. She had begun squeaking loudly and flapping her wings, which succeeded in knocking over her own cage twice. Harry had had quiet a few threats from his Uncle about "that bloody bird."  
  
At the moment, Harry was in the middle of writing Ron a letter.  
  
Ron,  
  
Hello mate. I need to ask you a favor. Would you please take Hedwig for the rest of the summer? My uncle is about to burst a blood vessel. She's been really loud lately and has knocked over her cage twice so far at night. I'm afraid that he's going to kill her while I'm asleep. Thanks.  
  
Also, could you not owl me anymore? I don't to get my uncle any angrier, he's already threatened to not let me go back to Hogwarts this year. I just don't want to start anything when I still have another two months here.  
  
And no, because I know you're wondering, I haven't had any dreams about Voldemort. Also, I'm getting ok with the idea that Sirius. Don't worry, I'm not crying myself to sleep at night. I get it, he's gone. I know you're worried about me, but don't worry. All I needed was some time. And I'm sorry I can't visit you for the summer. But I need to stay with the Dursley's this summer, especially since Voldemort is officially back.  
  
Thanks for everything. And I know Hermione is going to visit you sometime, so could you please show her this letter? I need to go help my aunt so I don't have time to write another one. Thanks.  
  
See you in two months,  
  
Harry  
  
Harry felt guilty as he looked over the letter. He wasn't being completely honest. His Uncle Vernon had been mad about Hedwig and all her noise, but he never threatened Harry or Hedwig. And he was not required to stay with the Dursley's all summer long. But Harry knew that as soon as he stepped foot into the Burrow, everyone would be giving him the "I feel so sorry for you" look and that was not what he wanted at the moment.  
  
Harry breathed a sigh as he motioned for his owl to come over. Hedwig gave him a very pointed glare as if insulted that she should come on command after being trapped in her cage for a whole week. Harry rolled his eyes and waved the letter tauntingly. He watched as the owl visibly was arguing with itself whether or not to deliver the letter. Finally she gave in and flew over to Harry.  
  
"Sorry girl, I know you've been trapped in the cage forever. Trust me, I know how you feel. But it'll get better in a couple of months." He gently pet her snow white feathers as he tied the letter to her leg. "But I've got some good news for you. I want you to take this letter to Ron. The good part is that you're going to stay with him for the rest of the summer. So you can fly around as much as you like." Hedwig's eyes got very big and excited at the prospect of being able to fly again. "But the bad part is that I can't come with you and that you can't come back here. I'm sorry, but I just need some time away from everyone." Hedwig nipped at his ear and Harry yelled out in surprise at the pain. He knew that his owl was cleverer than she looked. He knew that he was being selfish, but after fifteen, almost sixteen years, he deserved to be selfish. "Look, I'm sorry girl, I wish you could stay with me, but it'll be better for you to be with Ron. Don't worry, I'll see you sooner than you know. Be safe." Harry opened the window and held out his arm so she could fly away. Hedwig looked at him, then walked down his arm and gently nipped at his ear affectionately. She then took off into the sky.  
  
An emptiness filled Harry's heart. He would indeed miss his owl. He quietly closed the window again and sat back down on his bed. As much as he denied it, he still missed Sirius, though not with the suicidal-ness that he had before. He missed him like he missed his parents. He wished they were here, but knew that one day he'd see them again. "Hopefully, that day isn't anytime soon."  
  
It was August 1st when Harry felt the familiar feeling of fear again. Harry was up in his room, finishing his last piece of homework, a History essay for Prof. Flitwick. He was dotting his last I when he heard a loud scream coming from downstairs. Instinctively Harry reached into his pants pocket for his wand. Nothing. Panic overtook him as he jumped out of his chair and looked around his room frantically for his missing wand. It was not in his trunk or under his bed. It wasn't under the floorboards in his dirty laundry. A full minute finally passed before he found it in the pants he had worn the previous day. Harry threw open his door and raced down the stairs to the yelling of his uncle.  
  
"Where are they?" Harry yelled as his lept into the living room. His cousin Dudley was attempting, and failing, to hide behind the couch. Though both sides of him were visible on each side. His Aunt was cowering behind a chair shaking with fear. His uncle was standing in front of the fireplace yelling at the top of his lungs. "What is he doing?" wondered Harry as he stepped to the side to look at who his uncle was yelling at. He heart stopped when his eyes traveled from his red-faced uncle to the floating head in the green flames.  
  
"Oh no" Harry whispered.  
  
There in the flames was the face of Albus Dumbledore. 


	2. How To Go Anywhere, And Not Be Recognzed

**Dark Side of the Moon**

**Chapter Two – The Fire call**

**Author's Note: **

_I want to say thank you to my three reviewers: __Demen Dragacona, SlytherinDamian, and SmacksKiller. You guys probably didn't think it was anything big, but I was like 'dang, they liked it.' Well, I'm not sure if you liked it D.D. but I'm gonna be optimistic. So here is chapter two. Sorry about the cliffy, hopefully this comes out fast enough for ya. This should be a longer chapter than the first. I'm not really aiming for a set amount of pages for each chapter, so they will all depend on how many things I can think of to put in them. _

_            SlytherinDamian made some good points. Some of them are explained a little in this chapter and the rest I'll say now. I know Harry lets Hedwig out all the time, but in my story, I just needed him to get rid of her, so I went with that. Harry will be hooking up, but not till he gets to Hogwarts of course. I don't know if it still is, but I am ignoring the fact that the Dursley's fireplace is boarded up. Also, the explanation in this chap, so read on! P.S. – I forgot that Harry is supposed to owl the Order every 3 days, so let's just pretend he doesn't have to. LOL_

"What happened?" Harry asked as he saw the headmaster's head in the fire. From his experience with the old man, whenever he came to talk to Harry, bad news usually flowed from his lips. Harry braced himself for a loss. The Weasleys, Hermione, Hagrid, Luin, any of them could have been attacked. So many thoughts went through his head. He had just lost a godfather that year; he didn't know if he could go on without another friend. 

            "Oh come now Harry. Is an old man not allowed to visit a student of his? A friend?" The old man's face in the fire smiled at the boy.  The headmaster was only greeted with an intense stare. "Do not worry Harry, no one has been harmed. That is to say, the Order has not been harmed. Though as much as I wish it were not true, the same cannot be said for all of England. Voldemort officially announced his return at the ministry that night. Attacks and raids have occurred and lives have been lost. 

            Harry stared at the headmaster. The words that were just spoken to him hit hard. Harry always knew that Voldemort would start his attacks again, but Dumbledore just confirmed those fears and made them a reality. Harry just wished that Voldemort would somehow be stopped. Flashes of the conversation that he and the headmaster had had at the end of the previous school term came back to memory. 

            "Mr. Potter? Are you alright??" Dumbledore looked at the boy worriedly. 

            Harry continued to hold his gaze into the face in the flames. The face of the man that would one day send him out to fight the devil himself; the face that had kept so many secrets from him his entire life; the face that mad him stay with his horrible relatives for sixteen long years; the face that had just called him a friend. So many emotions raced through Harry's veins. Pain, anger, annoyance, sadness, relief, desperation, fear, joy, longing. 

            "Harr…"

            "I'm fine. I just got lost in my thoughts for a minute" Harry explained through aclenched jaw. He saw the look on the man's face and his feelings of annoyance grew. "Before you say anything professor, I really am fine. I'm dealing with what happened at the ministry." Harry's throat tightened at the thought. Though he was dealing with his emotions, it was still hard to put in words. "All I need is a little time. It's what I told Ron…"

            "Ahh, yes, Mr. Weasley. I have spoken with him lately." The Headmaster saw Harry's eyes shoot towards the ground, avoiding eye contact. He smiled knowingly. "He has informed me that you sent Hedwig to him and requested that he nor anyone else owl you for the rest of the summer. Also, Mrs. Weasley sent a very passionate letter demanding to know why I have forbade you to stay with them this summer. Now, I am an old man Harry, I make no excuse of it. Though for the life of me, I cannot recall saying that you were to stay with your relatives for the rest of the summer." Dumbledore smiled at Harry who now appeared five years younger, and as if he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. 

            Harry found himself staring at the floor like a child. 'Why am I acting like this? I didn't do anything wrong?' Harry thought to himself. He lifted his head up to meet the Headmaster's eyes with a look and feeling of confidence. "Yes, I sent him an owl asking if he could take care of Hedwig for me; and also to ask that no one owl me for the rest of the summer. I did not say that you said I couldn't go to the Burrow this year, you'll have to talk to him about that." 

            Dumbledore was a bit taken aback by Harry. The words were nothing crude, but the voice that had spoken them was not Harry's. "Harry, I can understand your want to stay with your relatives this summer, but to shut yourself off completely from the people that care about you is not a wise decision. Also, you sent away Hedwig, your only contact with the wizarding world. That was a very unwise decision, even if your uncle was angered by her." 

            "Well maybe I jus didn't want to have to spend my entire summer hearing things like: 'How are you holding up?' 'I'm sorry about Sirius' 'Have you had any dreams lately?' or 'You need to stop blaming yourself.' And my uncle was getting mad over her, but not more than usual. Maybe I just needed some peace and quiet. Is that too much to ask for?" Harry said in a cold quiet hiss. Ever since Harry's experience with Voldemort at the ministry, Harry was a more cold and peevish person. 

            "There is nothing wrong with a need to escape, but you need to at least owl someone and inform them of your plans. Harry what if you needed to get a hold of an Order member? How would you accomplish that?" Dumbledore looked at the boy in front of him. Harry only looked back at him defiantly. "Harry, I understand what you are going through. I have lost more friends over the years than I'd like to recount. I understand that solitude can be extremely helpful, I do. But if you put yourself in danger while seeking that solitude, then the price is too high…."

            The Headmaster went on with his lecture, but Harry stopped listening to him. "Maybe I don't care anymore if something happens to me" he thought to himself. When he had arrived at the Dursley's that summer he thought a lot about Sirius and his parents. He thought how all of his 'family' was dead. Harry remembered something Dumbledore had said to him before. He said, "One day Harry, you will meet your mother and father in the next life. You may spend some time here in this world without your parents, but a lifetime here seems like a second there. Cheer up my boy, your day will come." Harry had come to the conclusion that death wasn't something he should fear; rather, it was something he should embrace. It was freedom. He would be free from his worry; no more being constantly on guard or worried that Voldemort would show up at any given moment, and he would be able to be with his parents and Sirius again. Things would be perfect for him. While Harry was lost in his thoughts, the old man had continued his lecture, and had failed to notice his lack of an audience.

            "… and that is why I stress the fact that you must send her with a note saying you are all right every three days Harry" Dumbledore finished. 

            Harry's eyes refocused on the face in the flames. "Did he just say she?" Harry wondered. He looked down and saw a pair of yellow eyes staring back at him. A brown barn owl was perched on the edge of the fireplace mantel.

            "Do not worry, I will not inform the Weaselys of her presence. It can only bring your certain death if young Mr. Weasely knew you had an owl and chose not to write to him" Dumbledore joked. "We need you alive and well." The old man smiled at Harry.  

            Harry forced a smile on his face. "So was that all you came for Professor?" He tried not to let any of his annoyance or impatience carry into his voice. The old man, either for reasons of not detecting it, or jus chose to ignore it, kept on smiling. 

            "Of course not. We have dealt with the heavier topics, not let us move on to lighter ones. Since you have adopted a no owl policy this summer," the Headmaster choose to emphasize his smile here, "I decided to deliver your Hogwarts letter myself. Also, I bring some good news for you. You, from this moment on, are free to participate on the Gryffindor House Quidditch team." Upon hearing this, Harry gave his first genuine smile during the conversation. "You may pick-up your Firebolt when you return to school. I am sure you are happy about this news." Harry nodded at the professor with a smile on his face and said a quiet 'thank you.' "Also Harry, since you are going to have to buy your own school supplies alone this year, I thought that I would give you your birthday present early."

            "Birthday present?" Harry asked. 

            "Of course, it wouldn't be much of a birthday without presents Harry." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in the fire. "No matter what adults tell you, presents make birthdays what they are." He let out a light chuckle as his arm protruded from the fire and materialized in front of him. There was an envelope and a package in the Headmaster's hand. Harry reached forward and took the two items into his own hand. "That is your Hogwarts letter Harry. You will find that there are going to be additional books this year. A new class has been added, and I do believe that you will be quite happy about it. And also, it has a list of recommended classes that you take this year from Professor McGonagall All sixth years will have a meeting with their head of house to discuss this year's schedule. Since you will not be at the Weasely's this summer, I have arranged for a ministry car to pick you up the first of September. The car will be here at eight o'clock sharp Harry. Please be ready for him." Harry just stared back at the Headmaster. 

            "And how am I supposed to get to Diagon Alley to get all these supplies?" Harry asked.

            "Ahh…and that brings us to your next bit of information and your present. I have taken the liberty of connecting the Dursley's fireplace to the Floo Network this Friday, which leaves you two days. It will be connected at 8 o'clock in the morning for only one minute. We do not want any unwelcome visitors stopping by accidentally or purposely. So you must be ready Harry, so as not to miss your window of time. The fireplace will be open again at eight in the evening for one minute again" Dumbledore finished. 

            "Ok, so I just need to find a fireplace then?" Harry asked. Dumbledore nodded his head. "So exactly why have you given me twelve hours to shop for school supplies?" Harry asked.

            "Well Harry, this year things are a little different at Hogwarts. The dress code has been…changed." The Headmaster said. Harry looked gave him a look to continue. "It is my personal hope that wizards and witches find a way to get over their prejudices for muggles. The dress code is now muggle clothing, which is hardly different from normal wizarding casual wear. But of course, changing something that has been around for hundreds of years is not easy. It requires baby steps Harry. All the Hogwarts letters include a little note from me talking about the new dress code and the reason behind it. These are hard tomes now Harry, as you know all to well, and divided we cannot accomplish anything. We must stand together, for together we are the strongest."

            "Yeah, I've heard the speech before Professor. So what does that have to do with my shopping for twelve hours?" Harry asked. 

            Dumbledore gave him a look that Harry had no interest in analyzing. "Well, it is not a secret that your current wardrobe is very limited to your Hogwart's uniform and the clothes you receive from your cousin. I thought you would like the chance to go shopping for some new clothes." Dumbledore said this all while looking hesitantly around the room, as if he was uncomfortable telling Harry he had bad clothes.

            Harry laughed at the Headmaster's antics. "Don't worry Professor, I know I have some pretty rotten clothes. And some new ones would be nice."

            "Well I'm glad you took no offense." Dumbledore now smiled again at Harry.       

"So, ehh…what's the catch?" Harry asked, not returning the smile.

            "Excuse me?" Dumbledore asked.

            "Please, I've known you long enough to know that nothing is as it seems. There's some sort of catch with this. As much as I'd like to believe that you actually want me to have some fun on my own, that's not what's going on. Do you expect me to actually believe that you would let me wander around Diagon Alley and London on my own without some sort of bodyguard? I assume that you've arranged something of the sort to be with me when I'm there." Harry said accusingly. The Headmaster smiled and nodded his head. "And I'm also guessing that this would been either without me knowing it, or you've arranged for Prof. Lupin to be there and say he just missed me and wanted to spend the day together."

            "Ahh…it seems that it is becoming difficult to fool you Mr. Potter. I'm ashamed to admit that that are the two ideas that I had. I contacted Remus, but he is currently unavailable. Yes Harry you were right, I was going to have an order member stationed at the fireplace entrance into Diagon Alley under an invisibility cloak." The Headmaster had held his smiled through the entire confession. "But I must say Harry, that you pleasantly surprised me. It takes a great mind to anticipate other's decisions and plans. Please, I am curious to know, how did you know what I had planned?" Dumbledore asked with an expression of an anxiously excited child.

            "My uncle has the book, '_The Art of War_' I've read it over the summer. It surprised me how many situations of ours was in it." Harry said.

            "Well, you are not the only one who has read the book Mr. Potter. It is among my favorites." Dumbledore smiled. "Was that all?"

"No, it's also common sense. I'm 'The Boy Who Lived.' You would never let me go anywhere without some sort of protection. I'd be naïve to think that you would let me run free with no protection" Harry finished.

"Yes, they are hard but necessary precautions Harry. I'm sure you would do the same if our roles were reversed." Dumbledore looked at Harry for some type of response. Harry grudgingly nodded an affirmative. "You will be accompanied by an Order member Harry. I have already asked someone and they have agreed. You have the choice of having them being under an invisibility cloak or not."

"Under is fine. As long as the guy promises to stay out of the changing rooms." Harry said this with a sly smile. Dumbledore gave a hearty laugh.

"Oh, and thanks for the present. It'll probably be the only one that I'll get this year. So…thank you" Harry said.

"Oh! Dear me. The memory of an old man is not a good one. I forgot all about it. I've given it to you for several reasons Harry. The first of course being that it is your birthday present. The second is that it is a very handy thing to have. Why don't you open it?" the Headmaster suggested.

Harry looked down at the parcel wrapped in purple wrapping paper with broomsticks flying all over. There was a silver ribbon wrapped around it to complete the look. Harry carefully pulled the ribbon off and laughed at the paper and tore it off. What was found within the paper was a large black book. The title read '_How To Go Anywhere, And Not Be Recognized_.' Harry looked at the book and flipped through the pages. He saw illustrations of a woman making her hair 10 feet long, and a man changing his eyes from brown to bright orange. It brought back memories of the Polyjuice Potion. 

"I thought it would come in handy, I know how you detest being recognized in a crowd. Also, it would be helpful when you go shopping for your school supplies. There are some very good spells and charms in that book." Dumbledore said. 

"Thanks, but how am I supposed to use it? I'm not allowed to use magic during summer holidays?" Harry asked. 

"Oh, that." Dumbledore gave a slight chuckle. "Well, you did not hear this from me Harry, but that rule is not being enforced anymore. You see, there are countless spells and charms used to track underage magic use, but those spells and charms take a lot of time and power to keep up. Since Voldemort has come back, the ministry has redirected all of its magic tracking spells to dark magic. Now, any time a wizard or witch uses a dark spell, the ministry will know. I supposed since they believe that since everyone thinks that they can't do magic during the holidays, they wont."

"Oh, so I can use as much magic as I want, and they wont know the difference?" Harry asked eagerly. 

"Yes, but I do expect you to use your magic responsibility. And do not think that I will not be monitoring your magic use." Dumbledore said. Harry's smile faded back to a frown. 

"Leave it to Dumbledore to ruin all the fun" Harry thought. "Was that all Professor?" Harry asked, hoping that Dumbledore would leave him so he could practice some of his homework. 

"Yes Harry, would you be so kind to please inform your uncle that I wish to speak to him? I need to inform him that you will need to go shopping for your school supplies on Friday" Dumbledore said calmly.  

Harry laughed. "You expect my uncle to let me go just like that? Good luck." Harry turned around and went into the kitchen where he found his so called family sitting around the table quiet. His aunt looked scared to death, and his uncle looked furious enough to kill him. "Uhh…Uncle Vernon, Professor Dumbledore wants to talk to you." His uncle did not answer him verbally, just got up and walked stiffly towards their living room. Harry gave his cousin and aunt a knowing smirk then turned around and follwed his uncle. He stopped at the doorway connecting both the dining room and crossed his arms across his chest as he leaned on the doorframe. 

"Ahh…Mr. Dursley, I wish to speak with you. I have just informed Harry that he is to leave for the day and go buy his school supplies on Friday. I hope this is not an inconvenience for you Mr. Dursley." Vernon Dursley did not object or agree. He just stood and stared at Dumbledore as though he had just blown up his house. Dumbledore continued, "Also, since Harry will not be staying with his friends this holiday, I have arranged for a car to pick him up the first of September so you do not have to worry about taking him to the train station. Do you have any problems with this Mr. Dursley?" Dumbledore asked. Vernon only shook slightly from anger, but nodded his head no. "Well, then I will see you in two months Harry. Happy Holiday!" Dumbledore said as the flames roared and he disappeared. 

Harry only nodded his head when Dumbledore when he acknowledged him. After he left, Harry turned his attention to his shaking uncle. Vernon slowly turned and faced Harry with a death glare all over his face. His face was so red, Harry expected him to blow up at any moment. 

"BOY!!!" Vernon yelled at the top of his lungs. Harry flinched at the volume of his uncle's voice, but did not cower away like he would have done before his conversation with Dumbledore. Harry now knew that he was able to use magic, and he would no hesitate for a second to use it on his uncle. 

"HOW DARE YOU BRING YOUR FILTH INTO THIS HOUSE! I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT **THING** TALKED TO ME LIKE THAT! I HOPE YOU DON'T ACTUALLY EXPECT ME TO LET YOU GO AND BUY YOUR FREAK SUPPLIES. AND DON'T EVEN THINK TO ASK MONEY FOR THEM. NOW GET INTO THAT KITCHEN AND MAKE US SOME DINNER. UNLESS YOU EXPECT YOU POOR AUNT TO DO IT!" Vernon roared at Harry.

Harry rolled his eyes at his uncle and sighed. "Please, like I'm asking for your permission. I AM going to Diagon Alley to buy my supplies. I don't need your permission OR your money. I have plenty, more than you probably," Harry said as a small smirk spread across his lips.

Vernon let out an evil laugh. "Petunia! Did you know we had a rich boy here in our house all these years?" Petunia Dursley came out of the kitchen and stood next to her husband.

"Yeah, ever heard of an inheritance? What do you think happened to all of my parents' money? It just disappeared? No, I got it all. I have a vault full of stacks of gold coins" Harry spat at his uncle with a superior tone to his voice, ala Draco Malfoy. 

Vernon and Petunia's eyes grew big. "WHAT! And you just decide now to tell us this? I hope your ready to fork over some of that money Boy" Vernon said to Harry.

"Yeah, right after we have a happy day together as a family" Harry said sarcastically as he crossed the room to the stairs.

"And where do you think you're going?" Vernon hissed at Harry.

Harry turned around slowly. "I think I am going to my room you insufferable git." Vernon looked angry and shocked at the same time. Petunia gasped and covered her mouth and looked at her husband worriedly. His faced turned red as he charged at Harry read to strangle him to death. His fists were clenched and eager to grasp the boy's throat. He was only three feet away from Harry when he suddenly stopped. His two beady eyes stared at the want tip in front of his eyes. "Take another step and you'll find yourself thinking you're a nine year-old girl for the next twenty years" Harry said in a cold and cruel voice. Vernon looked at Harry, frightened and furious.

"You're not allowed to use magic over the summer" Vernon whispered with hate. "You're bluffing."

"You wish. Apparently, the Ministry of Magic is no longer enforcing that rule. So I am free to hex you into next week whenever I want. So why don't I tell YOU what you're going to do" Harry said coldly. He smirked at his shaking uncle. "You're going to leave me alone. Your wife is going to go into the kitchen and cook dinner herself for once and you and your family is going to leave me alone for the rest of the summer. I hate being here as much as you hate me being here." Harry turned around and climbed the stairs until he got to the top. He turned around to face his uncle and aunt who had not moved. "Have a nice night Uncle" Harry said sarcastically. Harry walked down the hall and walked into his room and closed the door.

Harry crossed the room and collapsed on his bed. He could not believe his day. First he sent away Hedwig to Ron, and then he had Albus Dumbledore in his fireplace telling him that he was allowed to use magic. 

            Now he had a new owl, a shopping trip to London and Diagon Alley, and had just told off his uncle and aunt. "OWL!" Harry yelled as he jumped off his bed, he had completely forgotten about her when he had left the living room. He was about to run out of his room when he saw the brown owl perched in Hedwig's cage. "Must have flown up here when I wasn't looking, huh?" Harry said to the owl as he pet her feathers.

            Harry looked at the door and couldn't believe what he had just said to his uncle. That had not been Harry Potter downstairs saying those nasty things to his family. That was someone else, someone strong and confident. They were someone Harry wished he were. But as much as it had frightened him, he enjoyed it. Harry had never felt so alive and free before. It was as if a part of him had been set free and he finally showed who he really was. His whole life he had apologized for himself and done what other's had told him to do. But in that moment, he just didn't care. He didn't care if he was being rude or an ass. 

            Harry was tired of holding in his thoughts and masking his emotions. He was tired of being yelled at and controlled. "Never again," Harry whispered to himself. He looked to his left and saw his birthday present lying next to him on the bed. He turned over and laid on his stomach as he flipped through the book. 

He looked at the illustrations on the pages. There was a spell to change every part of his body within the old binding. He looked up from his bed and into the mirror. He saw his father staring back at him. He stood up from the bed and walked to stand in front of the full-length mirror. He studied his body. He looked the same he had his entire life. The only difference was that he no longer looked sickly thin. He turned around and picked up the book. "Where should I start?" Harry asked as he set it on the desk right next to the desk. Harry looked at his reflection once more. The eyes. It was obvious; it's what he noticed first about himself. He flipped through the book until he found the section about eye color. He studied his face and looked at the different spells that were there. Gray. He studied the spell and pronunciation provided in the book. He looked at the diagram of the wand motion and practiced the movement a couple times. Then he looked into the mirror, removed his glasses, and pointed his wand towards his eyes. He concentrated as the spell came from his lips, "_Pingo oculus canens._" A light beam erupted from the tip of the wand and connected with Harry's two eyes. He was blinded for a second. 

He put his glasses back on and looked at his reflection. His eyes were no longer green, but gray. "Wicked" Harry murmured as he flipped through the pages. He flipped through the eye section eagerly looking for the spell that he hoped was in the book. "There!" Harry said excitedly as he read through the different types of vision spells. Harry had always wanted contacts, but he never dare asked his uncle for them. 

There were three different variations of the spell in the book. The first was a temporary vision spell that lasted for one day, just like the coloring spell Harry chose for his eye. The second was a vision-improving spell, it did not make your eyesight perfect, but it improved it greatly, this was intended for older people who's vision was beginning to fail them. The third was a powerful spell that had permanent effects. The receiver would have perfect eyesight for the rest of their life, but it was not recommended for Quidditch or other sports players. There was a note that players needed a certified mediwizard to perform the spell on them, otherwise something could happen and the player could have super sensitive eyesight, and that was considered cheating. 

Harry decided to use the first spell, but made a mental note to bring the book to Madame Pomfrey when he got back to Hogwarts. As he did with the eye color spell, he studied the spell and it's wand movements. He once again placed his glasses on the desk and pointed his wand towards his eyes again. He said the spell, "_Diu raconcilio oculus._" Harry's surroundings remained blurred for a couple of seconds. Gradually shapes sharpened and became more in focus until he could see perfectly. 

Harry went through the whole book and an hour later, he looked completely different. He had changed his eyes to gray, got rid of his contacts, and lengthened his hair to cover up his scar (a concealing charm would not work on it). As Harry stood in front of the mirror, he couldn't help but admit that he no longer looked the son of James Potter, now he looked like a younger version of Sirius Black. Harry had lost his baby face and now had the chiseled features of a man, much like Sirius. "Must get it from mum," Harry mumbled, since he had seen pictures of his father and in them all, he had smooth curves making up his face. "This wont work for Diagon Alley, I wont go three feet before they lock me up in Azkaban thinking I'm Sirius. 

Harry stood there admiring his new look with a sense of pride. He may not have been Sirius' son, but ever since the end of his third year, he had looked at the man as a father. Harry fell back onto his bed and went through the pages of the book looking at all the different spells. "These could really come in handy" Harry said to himself as he flipped through the pages. 

After an hour, Harry put the book on his desk and headed towards the stairs. When he reached the bottom, he could see his cousin Dudley sitting on his fat ass and watching TV. "I never get to watch TV like that." Harry walked up to the doorway leading into the TV room and leaned his shoulder on it. "Hey Dudley, get out of here. I want to watch TV" Harry said in a confident voice. His cousin looked at him through squinting eyes.

"And who the bloody hell are you?" Dudley asked, honestly oblivious to the fact that it was Harry he was talking to. Harry let out a soft chuckle and shook his head.

"Someone who isn't going to be taking your shit anymore." With a simple Windguardium Leviosa, Dudley was sent from the couch to the floor. Dudley's eyes grew big at the sight of Harry's wand. When he was lifted from his seat on the couch he screamed like a little girl. As soon as he hit the ground, he ran from the living room calling out for his mother. Harry simply smiled and walked over to the couch. He positioned himself comfortably. He picked up the remote and began flipping through the channels as his cousin had been doing only a minute ago. He smiled to himself as he heard his aunt telling her son to be quiet and just leave Harry alone. 

"The rest of the summer should be fun…" Harry thought to himself.

**Next chapter:**

Harry goes shopping and has some interesting encounters.

Hope you liked it. Please REVIEW!?

-gotta B writin

imjustryintokeepitreal@yahoo.com

Poll for the chapter:

1)Is Harry being too cruel? Is it not enough? Is it just right? Tell me what you think.

2)Also, I'm thinking of having Harry start to befriend Draco Malfoy, special circumstances are going to come up in the story later. What are your thoughts of a friendship between them?

3)How do you think Harry should act around Hermione and Ron? Should he still be cruel and mean? Or act nice around them?

Are there any special requests about someone Harry meets while shopping?

Thanks!


	3. Getting Started

Dark Side of the Moon 

Chapter Three – Getting Started 

**Author's Note: **_Hey, check the chapter "AN" for shout out and reactions. I am still torn on how to have Harry act around Ron. As you'll notice, the chapter starts out in a dream. These are scenes from the future. I'm thinking that most if not all will start this way. So if you pay close attention, you'll see where the story is leading. Also, I didn't feel like looking up Harry's vault number so I just made up vault 253. And…I think that's about it. Enjoy! And don't forget to review and tell your online friends._

-gotta B writin

imjustryintokeepitreal@yahoo.com

P.S. I'm just using Abercrombie because in America (where I'm from) it's one of the most popular clothes brands, so that's where that came from. I'm picturing Harry as a preppy looking guy. I'll try and find a picture of a guy so you can see what type of Harry I'm picturing. Happy reading.

            Harry stood in the doorway to the Great Hall. The giant room was filled with eating students. The students at the four tables were talking and laughing amongst themselves about trivial and childlike matters. Harry heard steps coming from the staircase to his left. He turned and the stairs leading to the dungeons came into his view. 

_            The steps drew closer, and a minute later a figure stood at the top. Harry smiled at the boy._

_            "Ready to learn how to kill Death Eaters?" Harry asked._

_            "Excuse me if I don't wet my pants in delight Potter."_

***

            Harry sat up in his bed at Private Drive. 'Weird dream' he thought to himself. Right after he said that, the memory of his dream vanished. 'What was it about?' Harry thought to himself. He turned to his left to shut off his alarm. "Oh shit!" Harry cursed to himself. He had forgot to set his alarm for an earlier time. He checked the time and saw that it was six-thirty. He now only had an hour and a half to go for his morning jog, shower and get dressed, change his appearance, and get to the fireplace.

            Harry hurriedly put on a pair of extremely baggy shorts that he had to tie a string around the waist just to keep them up, and an equally baggy shirt. He reached for his old worn out shoes that were now to small for him. He looked at himself in the mirror and frowned at his appearance. He now realized that his aunt and uncle had been right all those years, he was a visual embarrassment. "Just one more day" he thought to himself.

            He quietly sneaked out of his room careful not to wake his uncle. Harry smiled to himself and shook his head as he quietly opened and closed the house's front door. "Some habits are gonna be hard to lose."

            Harry returned from his jog forty-five minutes later. The morning had been exceptionally hot that day, so he was sweating through his clothes. He walked up the stairs to the bathroom. He turned the water on and shut the curtain. He began peeling off his clothes and through them into a pile on the floor. Harry was left standing only in a pair of boxers in front of the mirror. He smiled at himself and began doing ridiculous and downright idiot poses on front of the mirror. "For the love of Merlin I hope that no one walks in here right now." He laughed at the sight of himself and proceeded to remove his boxers and through them onto the pile of clothes that omitted a terrible scent. Harry quickly showered, and then dried himself off. He cursed to himself for not bringing clothes with him. He wrapped his towel around his waist and picked up his clothes from the floor. 

            "Ahh" Harry yelled in fright as the smell of his clothes reached his nose. He dropped the pile on the floor and tried to fan the fumes away. "Jeese, didn't think I smelled that bad" he said as he took a deep breath. He picked of his clothes and carried them down the hall to his room, all the while holding his breath. He passed by his uncle on his way. His uncle stared first at the pile then Harry's semi-naked form. 

            "Hey pervert, what do you think this is? A peep show?" Harry asked in a mocking tone as he passed by. He slammed his door behind him after he entered his room.

            He heard his uncle yell, "What do you think this is, a locker room? PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" Vernon walked away muttering to himself about the indecency of teenagers. 

            Harry ignored his uncle and threw his clothes into the middle of his room. He reached for his wand from inside the pocket of the shorts he had just been wearing. "Why didn't I think of this before?" Harry wondered to himself. "_Abeo!_" The clothes that had once been on the floor vanished. Harry smiled at his work. He wouldn't be needing those anymore. 

            Harry then picked up the clothes his had picked out the previous night. They were the nicest ones he had. They were a simple pair of jeans and a blue short-sleeved shirt. Harry put them on and had to hold up his jeans so they did not fall from his hips. They were the nicest pair he had, but they were far from the best fitting. Harry once again picked up his wand and muttered a spell while pointing at his pants. They instantly shrunk and Harry no longer had to hold them up. They fit on him just right. He had stolen an Abercrombie catalogue from Dudley the previous night and looked through and memorized the images. He had seen an advertisement saying that it was the style that most of the kids in England were wearing. Harry never was a fashion expert, so he just decided to take the ad's word for it and hope that he didn't look like an idiot. He shrunk his shirt so that he looked like the guys in the catalogue. Harry then went to his desk and pulled out his spell book from Dumbledore. He quickly reapplied the eye spells and the hair lengthening charm. He looked at his reflection and Sirius came to mind.

            "I can't possibly walk into Diagon Alley looking like Sirius' younger twin," Harry said. He picked the book and flipped to the hair coloring section he had been looking at the other day. "Hmm…so many colors. Let's see, there's brown, blonde, red, purple, yellow, red, blue, green and…to many other weird ones. I don't want too much attention soo…this will do." Harry studied the charm, it was fairly simple, second year level. He touched his wand to his hair and pronounced the charm. A golden blonde color spread from the tip of the wand to all of hair's hair. Even his eyebrows turned a couple shades lighter. Harry stood back from the desk and moved to stand in front of the mirror. He inspected his new clothes and features. 

            He smiled as he studied ever detail of the charms. "Tell me why I chose to look like Malfoy's long lost cousin." Harry looked over at his clock and saw that he only had five minutes until his windowed time would be open. He opened his trunk and retrieved his Gringotts bank key and then ran down from his room to the fireplace. He checked the clock over the mantel and it showed that Harry only had to wait two minutes to floo his way back into the wizarding world. 

            "Oh no…floo powder…" Harry muttered as he covered his face. How could he be so stupid? He didn't have any floo powder to use. "Maybe I have some in my trunk" Harry thought as he ran back up to his room. He tore open the door and immediately emptied his trunk's contents. No floo powder. "What am I gonna do? Why didn't Dumbledore give me and floo powder? Dumbledore…" Harry's thoughts trailed away as he ran down the stairs to the kitchen. He had thrown away his present's wrapping paper in the wastebasket there. He searched through the garbage until he found the familiar brown paper. He pulled it out of the basket and a plastic bag fell from the paper. A little note was tied to the bag. It read:

_Harry,_

            Here is some floo powder just in case you do not have any of your own. Happy shopping!

            "Stupid Dumbledore! Could have told me he gave me some floo powder. Harry looked up at the clock and swore. It was ten seconds past eight. He ran back to the fireplace and pulled out his wand and lit the logs on fire. 

            "And just where do you…" his uncle's rant was cut off when the man caught sight of Harry's appearance. "Well, however you look, you are not leaving this house you little nudist freak!" Vernon yelled at Harry. "And how dare you light that fireplace! It's bloody a hundred degrees outside and you get the bright idea to…" but before he could get out another word, Harry turned around and fired a well aim curse at his uncle. The man was lifted from the floor and was slammed into the wall behind him creating a dent in the plaster of the wall. The paintings and pictures on the wall fell from their place and their glass shattered as they hit the floor. 

            "Would you please shut up!?" Harry yelled right before he fired the curse at his uncle. He then turned around and looked at the clock. "Only ten seconds left." Harry threw the green powder into the fire and stepped into the green flames. He turned to face his unconscious uncle before he yelled "The Leaky Cauldron!" and was whisked away in the flames. 

***

            Harry was thrown from the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron out into the room. And for the first time in his life, Harry did not fall flat on his face. He stepped smoothly out from the fireplace into the room, as smoothly as possible while being thrown from the fire. He looked around the room, some things never changed. It looked exactly the same as it had when he had stayed there during his third year. 

            Harry studied the people sitting at the tables. He saw a couple of kids his age that he recognized from Hogwarts. He noticed a few of the girls smiling at him. Harry blushed slightly and made his way into the back lot of the building. 

            When he stepped out, he walked to the wall and tapped the correct stone. The wall began to rearrange itself and created a doorway for Harry to step through. He smiled at the sight before him. He watched as wizards dressed in the strangest robes walked with their children, friends, or by themselves down the streets. Harry stepped out into the street and started heading towards Gringotts, the wizarding bank.

            Once he reached the magnificent building, a goblin dressed in a deep burgundy suit opened the door for him and bowed as Harry entered. He walked into the extremely large room and saw countless wizards and witches standing in line waiting to see a teller. He stepped into one line that was labeled '_withdraws._' He stood in line for about twenty minutes until finally it was his turn. He stepped up to the goblin behind the counter.

            "Hello, I'm here to withdraw some money from my account, here is my key." Harry placed the key on the counter for the goblin. The goblin picked the key up and then inspected it closely. 

            "And this is your key?" the goblin asked.

            "What? Do you think I stole it?" Harry snapped at the goblin. He had waited twenty minutes in line, he was not in the mood to be questioned. 

            "Of course not _sir_," the goblin said, visibly restraining itself, "it is just that this particular key opens the vault of a young Harry Potter."

            Harry mentally kicked himself. How could have thought that the goblins wouldn't notice. He composed himself and placed another sneer on his face. "Of course it is, I'm his friend. He asked me to get some money for him." The goblin studied Harry's face and then looked back down at the key, obviously trying to decide whether or not he should allow Harry to use the key.

            "Very well the sir, what type of withdrawal would you like today?" 

            "I need to get some money in both wizarding money and pounds. I need to do some shopping in some muggle stores." The goblin looked at him and then asked his he was planning on spending a lot of money in the muggle stores. Harry tried to think. He had never bought clothes before and he didn't know how much a whole new wardrobe would cost him. "Yes, I suppose so."

            "Well then, may I interest you in Gringotts muggle offer?" the goblin asked. Harry made a gesture for the goblin to continue, so it did. "About two decades back, muggles invented a key like object called a credit card. It was used like a key at stores. Instead of having to pay with actual money, they would use the credit and with muggle technology, money from the person's bank account was taken out and put into the store's for the amount that the purchase cost. What we have done was copy their technology for wizards that held accounts here and often shopped at muggle stores. We can transfigure your key into a credit card for you to use in muggle stores if you would like. But it does cost a fee of five galleons to use."

            Harry looked at the goblin and nodded affirmably for the goblin to continue. He watched as the creature moved his fingers over the metal key and mutter words in a strange language. Slowly, the key flattened and stretched until it was in a rectangular sort of shape. A minute later, a credit card lay on the counter with his name and the Gringotts symbol in a corner. "There you are sir. Now would you like to be taken down to your vault sir?" the goblin asked. Harry nodded his head. "Very well," the goblin whistled and snapped his fingers at a goblin standing behind the counter. "Take…I'm sorry sir, I do not remember your name?" the goblin asked.

            "I didn't give it" Harry replied simply.

            "Yes, of course. Take this young man to vault 253 and then to the money exchanger after that. You may take as much money as you wish sir and then exchange whatever you want into pounds if you so choose at the money exchanger. The goblin picked up the card and held it out for Harry. Harry grabbed it and pocketed it for safety. He turned and followed the other goblin through some doors to a group of cars. The goblin climbed into one and motioned for Harry to follow suit. Harry entered the car and sat down on one of the seats on his side as they took off down the tunnels. The sped down miles and miles below Diagon Alley twisting and turning every couple of seconds. 

            Finally, they stopped at vault number 253. Harry and the goblin stepped out of the cart and walked over to the giant door. The goblin carefully put his hand in front of the door and slowly brought it down. While he did this, clicks were heard as the many locks unlocked themselves magically and finally the door opened. Harry stepped into the dimly lit room and looked around the vault. He immediately noticed that the room was now dangerously overflowing with gold coins. "Do you know why I have a lot more money in here?" Harry asked the goblin. 

            The goblin looked confused at the question. "No, I would not know sir. Have you made any deposits?" Harry shook his head no. "We can inquire when we return to the upper level sir." Harry nodded. He walked over to a pile of coins and stuffed a number of them into his pockets. He decided that he'd need a lot of money this year so he filled his pockets until they were bulging and then carried some more in his hands. 

            "Alright, I'm done" Harry said as he turned and walked out of the room trying to command as much of his dignity as he could while having unusually large lumps in his pants and a handful of gold coins. The goblin silently laughed at the boy. The two climbed back into the cart and it started its ascent back to the upper level. 

            When Harry walked through the doorway back into the large room, many people's eye grew big at the sight of him. "What? Haven't you people ever seen a teenager with money literally bulging out of his pocket's before?" Harry thought. He sneered at a gaping woman on his way to the exchange counter. He stepped into the line and did his best to ignore the strange looks he was receiving from the people in the bank. Thankfully, he was well experienced in getting strange looks from people. Finally after fifteen minutes of standing in line, Harry walked up to the goblin with a handful of galleons. He dumped the contents in his hands on the counter. "I need to convert these into pounds" Harry told the goblin.

            The goblin looked at him questioningly. "All of it?" it asked.

            "Yeah, all of it." The goblin sighed as he magically lifted all the coins into the air and placed them on a weight. After five minutes of the goblin balancing it, he handed Harry a large wad of paper pounds. Harry smiled as he picked up the wads and nodded a thank you to the goblin. He turned around and walked out of the building. 

            He stopped in front of the giant bank and looked around. He needed to go to one store before he left for London. He had planned to go clothes shopping first, and then go shopping for his school supplies. He saw the shop a little ways down the road and started walking slowly, so his pockets wouldn't explode. He finally found the shop he was looking for. He opened the door and walked into '_Badgeon's Bag Bandwagon._' 

            Harry walked into the store and looked around. He was obviously in the women's section because the bags all had flowers and pink on them. He walked further into the store until he was sure he was in the man's section. He came because he needed a bag to put all his purchases for the day and a wallet to keep his money in. He looked around the store for about ten minutes until he decided on a black over the shoulder messenger bag that looked like it wouldn't stand out in the muggle world or the wizarding world. He then walked to the wallet section and selected a simple black leather wallet. Happy that he made the right choices, he walked to the counter where the owner stood. Harry smiled at the old woman as he placed his purchases on the counter. The old woman smiled at him and then at his bags. "You have very expensive taste young man. Are you sure you want these?" the witch asked.

            Harry hadn't paid attention to how much the had cost, but he had pockets bulging with coins, it wouldn't make a difference how much they cost. "Oh, I wasn't sure or not, but are they charmed to expand on the inside? I'm going to be doing a lot of shopping today and I need this bag to put all of my stuff in there that I buy" Harry said to the old witch.

            "Why of course young man. This bag could fit this entire building inside of it and it wouldn't weight any more than it does right now. That's why it's so expensive. The charms on it are very thorough. Harry smiled; it was exactly what he needed. He asked how much it cost and the lady said that the two would cost him thirty-five galleons. 

            "That's all?" Harry asked. He had expected something in the hundreds. He handed the lady thirty-five galleons from his pocket and then took the two objects from the counter. He smiled and waved at the lady as he left the store. Once outside, he took all of the coins from his pocket and dumped them in a pocket in the bag and then put all of his pounds in the wallet. He put the wallet in his back pocket and the messenger bag over his shoulder. Harry smiled as he looked at his surroundings. He was rich, he looked completely different, and he could go wherever he wanted. Then his smile faded.

            "Stupid Dumbledore," Harry thought. He had completely forgotten that he was being watched. Then his smile returned to his face as he saw a large group of people approach him. "Okay, hope you have your running shoes on buddy" Harry smiled as he took off running into the crowds. 

            "If he's gonna have some loser follow me around all day, I might as well make it interesting for him" Harry thought as he ducked into another group of people.


	4. When In Rome

Dark Side of the Moon 

**Chapter Five – When In Rome…**

**Author's Note: **_I changed the chapter numbers. You may or may not notice, but the last chapter was three and this one is five. It's just confusing I think to have me say one number and the site another, so I'm jus going like this. I just want to say that I'm an American, so I don't know anything about British money. I'm just writing to stuff that I've picked up from TV. I hope I got it right. If any Brits read this, feel free to correct me for future references. Also, I couldn't remember if I read about Harry getting his dad's pocket watch in a fanfic or in the actual book. So let's just pretend that if it IS in the book, that it never happened. LOL, I know you guys love how I make you pretend a lot of stuff for this story. Hey, I put a gay sales clerk in this chapter. I have a little fun with him and Harry. I just want everyone to know that I got nothing against gay people. They can do whatever they want. So if you're gay, don't take offense to any of it. I'm writing the guy as the stereotypical gay man. So laugh along, don't get offended. _

_            Oh, I know that when you buy dress clothes like a suit and pants, you're supposed to have them tailored to the exact length and what not, but Harry knows magic. 'Nuff said. And also, I know there aren't mirrors in bathroom stalls…but in my story there are. So HA! LOL, I just want everyone to notice that I actually do not even know if the price of Firebolts was ever mentioned in the books, so I made up my own. And I do claim all rights to the Tsunami, LOL. _

Harry stepped out from the doors of the Leaky Cauldron into the busy streets of London. There were numerous people walking up and down the sidewalk and driving their cars in the street. Harry stepped to the edge of the sidewalk and raised his arm to call for a cab, just like he had seen on TV. A minute later, a cab pulled up to him. Harry looked at the street to memorize the address for his return, and then got inside the car.

"Take me to the nearest shopping mall" Harry said to the cab driver. The man nodded and began driving down the street taking left and right turns at stoplights. Harry stared out the window as they drove. He looked out at the world that he had never known. His aunt and uncle had never taken him on vacation. The only time he left Private Drive was when they were on the run from Harry's school letters, when he went to the zoo because the Durselys couldn't find a babysitter, and when he left for the Weasleys, two years ago when he went to the Quidditch World Cup, or Hogwarts.  

The cab driver pulled up to a rather large building that read '_Spring Crown Mall._' The driver turned around to face Harry. "Alrigh' there m'boy, that'll be twenty pounds." Harry reached into his back pocket and pulled out the wallet that he had bought. He pulled out three ten-pound notes and handed them to the driver. The driver took the money and smiled at Harry. "Well a'en't you Mr. Big Spender, thank ya' then, and have a nice day there sir." Harry smiled politely at the mad and got out of the car. He walked over to the doors and then turned back to the cab that was pulling away from the building. 

Harry wondered to himself if the bodyguard that Dumbledore had arranged for him had made it into the cab. He hadn't felt anyone with him while in the vehicle. "Oh well," Harry shrugged as he pushed open the doors. The sight in front of him surprised him. There were people everywhere. A majority of them were teenagers. Everywhere Harry turned, there was a store. Now he understood why Dumbledore had given him so much time. It would take him hours just to find a store for him to shop at. Harry looked around at all the people and got worried. Where would he start? Which stores were the right ones to shop at? Harry spotted a group of kids that looked about to be his age and had on the clothes that he had seen in Dudley's magazines. The group was walking up the stairs to the second level of the building, so Harry decided he would follow them and hopefully find some clothing stores. 

The group of kids headed into the store that Harry had been looking for as he followed them, Abercrombie. He smiled at his good luck and entered. When Harry walked through the doors, he blushed at the picture of the naked man and woman that hung on the wall. Harry walked over to the men's section and looked at all of the clothes. There were short-sleeved shirts, long sleeved shirts, jeans, khaki's, dress pants, sweaters, sweatshirts, underwear, socks, hats, sunglasses, bracelets, and necklaces. "What have I gotten myself into?" Harry moaned as he looked at all of the items. 

"First things first, I gotta find out what size I am" Harry thought to himself as he looked at items to try. He knew there was no chance he was anything larger than a large as he picked up a large sized shirt. He grabbed a shirt and sweater in small and medium sizes and then some pants that looked about to be his size. He headed to the dressing room and tried on all of his clothes. "So I'm a medium and a size 30" Harry mumbled to himself as he came out of the dressing room. He returned the clothes that didn't fit back to their places and then stood there looking at all of the clothes. "What the hell should I buy?" Harry wondered as he looked at all of the clothes.  Harry sighed and turned around when he heard a noise. There was one of the girls from the group that he had been following. She stood there smiling at Harry. Harry blushed. He wasn't used to girls smiling at him in that way. She has beautiful. She had blonde hair that ran to the middle of her back and green eyes just like Harry's. She wore a simple shirt and jeans, but they were tight enough to show that she worked out. The mystery girl came up to Harry and smiled.

"Hi, I don't usually do this, but me and my friends just wanted to let you know that we think you're cute," the girl said as her eyes traveled up and down his body. This caused Harry's blush to increase even more. If he wasn't used to getting smiled at by girls, he definitely wasn't used to them blatantly checking him out.  

Harry then mentally scolded himself. "Come on Potter, get a hold of yourself. It's just a girl. The old you would blush and stammer out some stupid sentence that would make her laugh. Stop blushing and whip out some of that Potter charm that Sirius always told you about." Harry's cheeks faded back to their normal color and a small smirk spread across Harry's lips. Harry looked past the girl and saw two girls standing at a display of necklaces. They both smiled and waved at him. Harry looked back at the girl and took his cue from her, letting his eyes wander over her body. "Well, why don't you go tell your friends that I think that you're cute" Harry said as he smiled at the girl. The smiled at him and smiled a simple thank you and then turned around to her friends and the three of them walked away giggling to themselves.  "Score one for Potter," Harry smirked to himself. 

Once again Harry stared at all of the clothes and contemplated his problem. After another minute he got fed up and took one of everything. Harry walked up to the cashier and placed his mountain of shirts, pants, and sweaters on the counter. The cashier gave him a skeptical look. "What can I do for you sir?" the man asked. 

"You are the cashier aren't you?" Harry asked him. The man nodded. Harry gave him an irritated look and continued, "So what do you think I want you to do? A little dance?" Harry sneered at him. The man looked surprised first at Harry's comment and then at the mound of clothes. He began to charge all of the items. After he rang up the last pair of pants he looked at the computer screen then sent a victorious smile at Harry. 

"That will be three hundred and seventy-seven pounds. Will that be cash or credit?" the man said laughingly to Harry. Harry was about to reply credit to the man, but as he pulled out his wallet and looked at his money, an idea came to him.

"Hmm…let me see how much I have on me," Harry said as he looked through the wallet. He opened up the wallet wide, making sure to let the cashier get a good look at the numerous pound notes in it. "Let's see, one thousand, two thousand, three thousand…" Harry counted. He smiled inwardly as he flipped through ten-pound notes, not thousand. "Oh, here we are, some hundreds" Harry said as he pulled out the only hundred pound notes. Here you are, eight hundred pounds." Harry said as he held out the money. The man took the money and checked to make sure that Harry wasn't trying to pull one over him. Finally he grudgingly gave Harry his change back and put all of the clothes in bags. Harry gave the man one last sneer before he took the bags and left the store. Once he exited the store, he looked around for a place to put the bags in his bottomless bag. He spotted a bathroom sign. 

Harry walked out of the bathroom with his bag full of the bags of clothes that he had just bought, thought the bag looked no more full than it had before. But before Harry could find another store to go into, he heard a shout from his left. "Hey Richie Rich!" Harry turned around and there were the two girls that he had seen in the store and two guys standing next to each girl. "What do you think you were doing talking to my girl in there?" the first guy asked. He stood with his arm around the girl that Harry had talked to in the store. 

Harry looked at the boy and gave him an irritated look then tried to walk away. The boy just moved to stand in Harry's way. Harry moved to hi left but the boy moved again to block his way. "You wanna get outta my way there buddy?" Harry asked through clenched teeth. Harry had a lot of bottled up anger that he was just beginning to embrace, and he didn't want to hex some guy just because he talked to his girlfriend. 

"Hey where are all of those bags that you had?" the other boy asked Harry.

"My personal butler is carrying them for me" Harry sneered at him. The two girls laughed at the boy, this only encouraged Harry. He stepped up to the first boy and shoved him back. "Hey, I think you're extremely good looking girlfriend," Harry looked over and gave the girl another once over, which caused both her and her boyfriend to redden for different reasons, "is allowed to talk to whoever she wants. Is it my fault she thinks I'm better to look at than you?" The first boy glared daggers at Harry, which he only returned with a less than interested look. "So was there anything else? Or did you just feel the need to waste my time?" Harry demanded with a glare that made the boy take a step back.

Harry gave a smile to the two girls before he left the group and walked away to look for another store. He came across numerous stores that had similar clothes to the first. He went to seven other stores and bought countless pants and shirts. Four hours later, and a bottomless bag that was soon becoming stuffed, he decided that his new closet was large enough to rival that of Draco Malfoy. Harry then sat down on one of the benches in the large hall. He sent back some smiles to girls that had waved at him as he sat. "Man, I wonder what time it is" Harry thought as he looked at his naked wrist. "I really need to get a watch," Harry thought. He sighed as he looked around the mall. "Well, now it's time for some shoes." He got up and walked back to a section that he had seen shoe stores lined up next to each other. 

Harry walked into the first and looked at the walls covered with shoes of ever color and size. After an hour, Harry had ten different pairs of shoes. When Harry had bought a couple of pairs of dress shoes, it had hit him that he never bought any nice clothes. He had numerous shirts and pants that were okay to wear for school, but nothing fancy.

After he stuffed the boxes of shoes into the bottomless pit, Harry started looking for some stores that sold nice dress clothes. He wandered into Marshall Fields and was walking around the men's section when a sales clerk came up to him.

"Hello, aren't we Mr. Handsome. Can I help you sir?" the mad asked as his eyes traveled over Harry's body. 

Harry tensed up at the presence of the man. He looked to be about thirty and obviously wasn't interested in the female sex. Harry took a step back from the man. "Uhh…I was just looking around. I need a new wardrobe and figured that some nice clothes wouldn't hurt." 

The man obviously looked excited at the words 'new wardrobe.' "A new wardrobe? That is so exciting. Well, the first thing we have to do is get you measured up honey. I can't very well let your good looking self walk around in ill-fitting clothes. Now why don't we step over here so I can get you measured up." The man practically skipped away to fetch a measuring tape as Harry walked over to the spot that the man had pointed to. Harry dropped his bag on the floor next to him as the man came back with a tape measure. "Alright then, I'm going to measure your neck, arm, chest, waist, and inseam. So why don't you hold up your head high, and spread your arms and legs for me?" The man asked.

"I bet that's not the first time you've said that," Harry thought to himself as he grudgingly did as the man asked. He stood still as the man put the measuring tape around his neck, down his arm, around his chest and waist. Harry looked around exasperated. It seemed as though the man was taking forever. His eyes were scanning the piles of clothes when he felt a hand close around his '_unmentionable area_.' "Whoa!" Harry yelled as he jumped backwards, away from the man kneeling in front of him. 

"Whoops! Clumsy me, I do have butter fingers sometimes" the man said as he smiled to himself. Harry glared daggers at him as he watched him stand up and announce Harry's measurements. Harry picked up his bag and walked to find some clothes in his sizes. 

"Great, the first time someone grabs little Harry, and it just _has_ to be some thirty year old pervert _guy_" Harry thought to himself. Harry walked around and grabbed the same dress shirts and ties that he saw on the manikins. He walked over to the jacket and pants section and grabbed two suits and a tuxedo. "You never know," Harry thought to himself as he took the tuxedo off the rack. Harry walked over to the counter where the man stood and dumped his pile of clothes on it. 

The man looked up from his nail filer and smiled at the large pile of clothes. "Will this be cash or credit?" Harry pulled out his credit card and slid it across the counter. The man took the credit card and slid it through the machine and began scanning the items. Harry stood there waiting for his purchases. He was thankful that the man wasn't hitting on him anymore. He looked down and noticed display of nice watches. Harry looked and saw a silver watch with an emerald face. Harry bent down and examined the watch more closely. Harry stood back up and pointed towards the watch. 

"I'll take that watch too" Harry said to the man. The man looked up from the clothes he was charging and pulled out the watch. 

"You have very good taste there. This will match beautifully with you're eyes," the man said as he smiled at Harry. Harry just sneered at the man and turned around. He saw a man looking at a woman's backside as she was bending over to pick up something. Harry's eyes got big and he quickly spun around again. The man had his head to the side and was obviously copying the other man's actions. Harry distinctly heard the man mutter, "Good looking from all angels" under his breath as he continued to scan all of Harry's purchases. Finally the man handed the large bags full of clothes to Harry. "There you go. Some big bags for a…big boy." The man winked at Harry and made another once over Harry's body. Harry was tempted to pick to throw one of his many new shoes at the man, but decided against it. 

Harry walked over to the nearest bathroom and stuffed all of his bags back into his bottomless bag, except the one with his new watch. Harry took it out of the wrapping and put it on his wrist. It fit loosely on him. Harry checked all of the stalls to make sure there was no one else in there. He quickly pulled out his wand and muttered the same spell he had used on his clothes that morning. The band on the watch changed as it shortened so that it would fit his wrist perfectly. Harry smiled at his new watch. He turned and looked into the mirror on the wall. 

"Nice face, bad clothes" Harry muttered to himself. It was true. He did have a very attractive face. The countless girls that had given him looks were greatly justified. But even though Harry's clothes now fit him, they didn't look very good on him. Harry walked over to the handicapped bathroom stall and put his bag on top of the toilet. He proceeded to stick his head into the bag and rummaged through all of his new clothes until he found something to wear. Harry first pulled out some dark faded blue jeans that he had bought and some green boxers. Then he pulled out the brown belt that he had bought and one of his new pairs of white shoes along with some socks. He took off all of his clothes that he had on and then put on his new ones. There was a mirror in the stall and Harry turned to examine himself. His new pants and shoes fit him perfectly. Harry studied his chest. He was quiet proud of the fact that he wasn't the skinny twig that he used to be. He had muscles now. He flexed his arm and smiled. "Maybe I should just walk out like this. I'll definitely get more compliments from girls." Harry laughed at himself. He finally just stuck his hand in the bag and pulled out the first shirt he grabbed. This shirt just happened to be a plain short sleeved green shirt that he had bought in the second store he visited. Harry pulled off the price tag and the stickers that were on it. He slipped it over his head and examined his new appearance. Harry studied himself. He had light creamy skin, long light blonde hair, gray eyes, a green shirt, and expensive silver and green watch, and a black bag hanging across his shoulder. 

"Slap some gel in my hair and slick it back and I'm Malfoy's twin" Harry thought to himself. He was about to switch his shirt when he looked at the bag full of new expensive clothes. Visions of his rude and sarcastic comments he made to various people came back to his mind. Harry was slowly starting to become the same cruel person that Malfoy was. Harry looked again at his reflection. A slow smile spread over his lips again. "When in Rome," Harry thought to himself. He picked up his bag and exited the bathroom. When he was walking through the mall, he saw the same boy that had tried to pick a fight with him before. 

"Well look who it is. Our friend Richie," the boy began. But before he could get any other words out of his mouth, Harry just walked past him, flung his left arm out and pushed the boy into the large water fountain. "AHH!" the boy screamed as he fell into the water. His friends and girlfriend burst out into fits of laughter at the sight. Harry merely sent a well-practiced smirk at the boy as he continued to walk away. 

Though if anyone had listened closely, they would have heard Harry mutter, "When in Rome," under his breath as he smirked.

Harry walked out of the mall and called a cab to take him back to the Leaky Cauldron. As Harry sat in the back seat and stared out the window, he thought about his new change. He was rude, sarcastic, cruel, and a bully. But he was also confident, no longer afraid to think of himself, happy, and had power. He didn't have to be scared of his uncle anymore. Hell, he had just pushed a kid into a water fountain. A week ago, he would have just stood there and let the boy humiliate him. But now, he fought back. He was a new Harry. The old Harry was dead. "Only the strong survive," Harry mused to himself, "and I'm not planning on dying anytime soon." If anyone had looked into Harry's eyes at that moment, they would have seen a green fire in those enchanted gray eyes. 

The cab pulled up to the record store next to the street corner that Harry had memorized. Harry paid the man and got out of the cab. He stepped up to the door of the Leaky Cauldron and looked both way to make sure that no one was looking at him before he opened the doors and entered. Harry walked through the tavern. He was about to exit through the back door into the small courtyard when he heard a familiar voice. "Draco! Oh, it's so good to see you!" Harry froze. It was the smooth voice of Pansy Parkinson. It was well known around Hogwarts that Pansy fancied Draco Malfoy. It was also well known that Draco Malfoy wanted nothing to do with her. Harry felt an arm wrap around his waist. He felt her warm breath in his ear. "I love what you've done with your hair Draco" she whispered. Even though Harry couldn't truthfully say that it didn't feel good, he was annoyed at being confused with his rival.

"You might want to get your eyes checked" Harry hissed at the girl before he spun around and faced her. "Going to strangers and feeling them up from behind isn't the best thing to do in public. They might get the wrong idea" Harry sneered at her. Pansy gasped and stepped back. Harry couldn't blame her; he himself thought that he resembled Malfoy a little too much. "Note to self, next time I disguise myself, definitely go with brown hair" Harry thought as he looked at Pansy.  She still looked shocked, and then slowly, her expression changed as her eyes roamed over Harry. A smile came to her lips as her eyes met Harry's gray ones.

"Well, I'm sorry for coming up to you like that, I thought you were someone else."

Harry raised his eyebrows at her and crossed his arms over his chest. "Apparently."

"Do you go to Hogwarts? I've never seen you before?" Pansy asked while smiling and playing with her hair. 

Harry looked at the girl. Granted, she was an annoying Slytherin, but she definitely wasn't sore on the eyes. "Oh, trust me. We've met before," Harry said as he gave her his new sly smile. 

Pansy batted her eye lashed as him flirtingly. "Really…I'm sure I would have remembered you. I'm Pansy Parkinson. What was your name again? I didn't catch it," She asked as her eyes once again traveled over Harry's body. 

Harry let out a deep chuckle and walked up to the girl. Pansy held her breath as Harry leaned in and whispered into her ear. "I didn't throw it." Harry continued to walk to the back door and opened the gate into Diagon Alley. Harry stepped into the crowded wizarding shopping center. Harry was about to enter a shop when he remembered that he needed to have his key changed back to normal. Harry turned and walked up the steps to Gringotts Wizarding Bank. 

Harry spent about another hour in the bank. His key was changed back to its original form. Harry learned that Albus Dumbledore had deposited an extremely large amount of money into Harry's account. In fact, Harry now had two vaults down in the endless tunnels of the bank. But the second was charmed to transfer more money to the original vault when some money was withdrawn. Harry took another trip down to see his vault and after all the money had had spent on clothes, the vault looked like it had even _more_ money was in it than before.

He was now visiting his third store in Diagon Alley, _Wonderfully Written_, looking for a new set of parchment and quills. It was a store that was located in the richer part of Diagon Alley. Harry had actually seen the Weasley's on his way to the shop and heard Ron mutter, "Rich Boy" under his breath as he passed him by. Harry almost turned around and said a sarcastic comment to his best friend before he realized that it was Ron. The fact that Ron was always jealous of Harry's money and fame always got to him. It hit its peak in their fourth year when Harry was chosen as one of the champions in the Triwizard Tournament. 

Harry was standing at a shelf filled with different types of quills. There quills with all types of feathers. Harry was looking at a particular quill when he noticed out of the corner of his eye his ex-girlfriend walk in. Harry turned his head a saw Cho Chang standing at the door. She flipped her long raven locks behind her head. Harry stood there and gazed at her. There was no denying her beauty; it was impossible to say that she wasn't beautiful. But beneath that beauty was a self-centered spoiled brat. Harry looked at her and rolled his gray eyes. He was done with his childish crush on her. Harry shook his head and returned to his examination of the phoenix quill. It really would be a nice addition to his collection oh phoenix paraphernalia. After about five minutes of trying to decide, Harry felt as though he were being watched. He looked up and saw Cho staring at him from across the store. He made no attempt to acknowledge her as he returned back to his shopping. 

A couple of minutes after that, Harry looked up again and saw Cho staring at him. It was stating to annoy him; Harry almost turned around and walked away. But that was what the old Harry would have done. The new Harry would confront the situation, not run away from it.  

"Can I help you with something?" Harry asked in an indifferent, almost bored tone of voice.

"What?" Cho asked as she was cut off guard. Boys never talked to her like that. "No… it's just that you look a lot like a boy that I go to school with," she explained.

"Lucky guy," Harry said to her before returning to the quill. Harry picked up the quill and began inspecting the feather more closely. 

"So," Cho began, "do you go to Hogwarts?" she asked.

"Nope" Harry said without looking away from the quill. He turned it over in his hand and began to examine the other side of the feather.

"Well I do." Cho was confused. She was used to boys drooling over her, not ignoring her. She was insulted. She had never been ignored by any boy that she showed interest in. Hell, she had even dated the Great Harry Potter. A feeling of determination came over her. "Umm…my name is Cho Chang" she said as she walked over to him and smiled.

"You must be so proud" Harry said as he gave her a bored look over the feather. He returned the feather his attention. It really was a beautiful quill. The tip was made of silver. The feather was a dark blood red at the bottom and gradually turned into orange, which faded away in a shiny gold. 

"That's a really pretty quill. Are you buying your girlfriend a present or something?" Cho asked while biting her lip. "Maybe he's just asking like this because he had a girlfriend," she thought as she waited for an answer. The boy either didn't hear her question, or just chose not to answer it. 

"Or maybe a boyfrie…" she began before she saw the boy put down the quill and give her an annoyed glare.

"Let me do you a favor and save you some time. As hard as it may be to your apparently oblivious mind, not every guy is interested in you. So unless you wanted to embarrass yourself further, why don't you move along and go bother someone else" Harry sneered at the girl. 

Cho looked at him in horror and ran away in tears. Harry watched the girl run away and smiled a sinister smile. Harry heard applause behind him.

"Congratulations. I thought I was the only one who was immune to the whore's so called charm." Harry turned around and faced his twin. There standing in front of him stood Draco Malfoy. 

"There's a first. His smart remark isn't aimed at me," Harry thought as his looked at the boy. But Harry then recalled that he was disguised.

"Even the Great Harry Potter drooled all over her, the fool." Draco said through a lopsided grin. 

"There it is," Harry thought. "Wow, that's so cool" Harry said in a sarcastic tone. "We should start a club."

Draco looked taken aback. "Well, it seems as though you don't know who I am. Allow me to introduce myself, I am…"

"Draco Malfoy? Yeah, I know who you are" Harry said as he picked the quill back up. "Tell me, what do you think of this quill?" Harry asked him.

"The quill? Uhh," Draco stammered, "it's very nice I suppose."

"My thoughts exactly. Thanks." Harry smiled at Draco and then turned around and walked away. Harry mentally gave himself a pat on the back. This was one of the few times that he was able to talk to Draco and leave calmly. It seemed as though the new Harry

Draco watched as the boy turned around and walked away from him. That was a first with him. Usually people reacted to him in one of three ways. They sucked up to him as much as possible, yelled a nasty remark at him, or just gave him a dirty look and ignored him. He wasn't used to being politely dismissed, and on top of that, being politely dismissed by someone his age. The boy intrigued Draco. Obviously the boy must be an extremely rich wizard to treat Draco like he was below him. Draco followed the boy to the section where the quill boxes were located. He saw the boy examining a rather attractive wooden box with gold trimmings. "Whoever he is," Draco thought, "he has excellent taste." Draco walked up to him. 

"Who are you? Obviously you must be rich to know who I am and still speak to me like that," Draco asked. "You already know my name, what's yours?"

"My name?" Harry asked incredulously. He didn't expect that he would be asked his name. Harry looked around the store and saw a sign advertising Ethan Daniel parchment. 

"Ethan," Harry answered as simply as he could. 

"Oh, Ethan!" Draco said sarcastically. "Well, I know who you are!" Harry smiled at him. Draco honestly had no clue that he was joking around his a boy that he wanted dead since their first year at Hogwarts. It amused Harry. "Do you have a last name?" Draco asked Ethan.

"Yes I do" Harry smiled as he turned his attention back to the wooden box. Harry felt confused. How was it possible that he could joke around with Draco Malfoy, prince of the Death Eaters?

The bell charm was activated as the door to the shop was opened; and none other than Hermione Granger walked into the shop accompanied by Ronald Weasley. Harry turned to see Draco's reaction. A scowl formed on the boy's face and Harry was once again reminded on exactly why the two were not friends. No personality traits were strong enough to make up for the boy's views on muggles and people of lower income.

"Well, well, well," Draco sneered at the two, "if it isn't the mudblood and her weasel bodyguard." Ron's head snapped over to the voice. Hermione also heard him and did her best to ignore him. "Where's the scar head? I've missed Potter oh so much" Draco sneered at them. Harry rolled his eyes at Draco's comment. 

"Look you little ferret," Ron said, "why don't you and your little twin here leave the two of us alone. Nobody except for you is looking for trouble."

Both Draco and Harry looked surprised at Ron. Draco was surprised about Ron's twin comment, and Harry was surprised at the fact that Ron was calm and didn't jump at the chance to beat Malfoy down to a pulp. Draco turned to him and studied him over. "I suppose we do look alike," Draco muttered to Harry. Harry reciprocated Draco's movements and nodded his agreement.

Draco turned back to Ron and Hermione. "How Weasley of me, where are my manners?" Draco said calmly. Ron's face turned a slight shade of pink at his comment. "Allow me to introduce my friend Ethan. These are…well, it doesn't really matter who they are I suppose," Draco said as he waved his hand as though dismissing the two from his presence.  

Harry watched as Hermione shrugged her shoulders and walked away. Ron lingered for a second longer than she did. He looked at Harry's face, as though he recognized him. Harry froze for that moment. Ron's face scrunched up in concentration for a second, before it turned into a scowl and he left. Harry let out a sigh of relief, Ron hadn't recognized him. 

"So if you don't go to Hogwarts, what school do you go to?" Draco asked as Harry's two friends walked away. 

"What?" Harry asked in confusion, but he then remembered his answer to Cho's question. "Oh, well actually I was tutored privately until this year. I've finally convinced my parents to allow me to go to a regular school. I'll be attending Hogwarts as a sixth year." Harry surprised himself at how easily he made up that story. "Must be one of my Slytherin qualities" Harry mused to himself.

"Really? I'm going to be a sixth year at Hogwarts myself. I'm in Slytherin House. And if you know what's best, you'll want to be in there too. If you want, when we get to school, I can show you around and help you pick out who and who not to associate yourself with." Draco then stuck out his hand to Harry.

Harry stared at the hand in front of him. The words brought Harry back to his first trip to Hogwarts, as the two boys and the other first years stood outside the Great Hall's doors. It was there that Malfoy made his first attempt to befriend Harry. His words then were almost the same as the words that he had just spoken. Harry had many times lay awake at night and wondered what his life would be like if he had taken Malfoy's offer. Would he be the same person he was now? No, Harry was certain of that. But questions like those occasionally haunted Harry's dreams. Harry still stood there looking at Draco's hand. 

Harry half smiled at the boy as he answered. "Maybe." Draco at first looked offended and pulled his hand back. He looked at Harry and seemed to find whatever reassurance he was looking for before he smiled. 

"Alright then. But I have to go; my mother is waiting for me. I'll see you at the platform." Draco said before he turned and left the store. 

Harry watched the boy leave in confusion. He and Malfoy had actually had an enjoyable conversation. Of course, Harry was in disguise, therefore Malfoy didn't recognize him, but for those minutes, Harry was introduced to a different side of Draco Malfoy. He seemed friendly, and almost nice to Harry, no, Ethan. Draco was nice to Ethan. The two smiled and joked around, they both received death glares from Ron Weasley together, and they even made semi-plans to hang out at Hogwarts. Though Harry knew that the two would never actually follow through on those plans once Draco realized who Ethan really was. 

Then again, he was still the same Draco Malfoy. The Draco Malfoy that called Hermione and others Mudbloods. He was also the same Draco Malfoy who tried to get Harry and his friends expelled from school countless times. He was also the same Draco Malfoy who tried to get Hagrid fired and sent to Azkaban for sheltering an illegal dragon. He was also the same Draco Malfoy who tried to get Buckbeak killed. He was also the same Draco Malfoy who was the son of Lucius Malfoy. He was also the same Draco Malfoy who had endlessly threatened him with death. But, he was also the same Malfoy who had just offered to help the new kid out, show him around the school, and befriend him. 

"Maybe he's changed?" Harry thought. "Maybe he's deluded? Maybe I'm just imagining things? Maybe that wasn't him at all? Maybe I'm crazy for even thinking that Malfoy and me could ever be friends. He hates me, he wants me dead, I'm at the top of his boss's death list, and I'm the one who's antagonized him for the past six years. And on top of all that, I'm a Gryffindor." Harry laughed at himself as he shook his head. The very thought of him and Malfoy being friends was comical. 

Harry finished his shopping at the store and paid for his new quills, box holder, and sheets of parchment that he had bought. From the store, he headed over to Flourish and Bolts to buy his new schoolbooks. Harry was interested at the dueling book that was listed. Apparently, Dumbledore decided to add Dueling as the newest class at Hogwarts. Harry bought all of the books on his list and went to the witch at the front o pay for them. While paying for his items, the witch explained that since he didn't know which classes he would be taking, he could send back the books of classes he wouldn't be taking after he found out his schedule and be refunded for them. Harry thanked the woman and left the store. He was finally done with his school shopping. Harry looked at his watch and saw that it was half past six and realized that he hadn't eaten all day. Harry headed over to the Leaky Cauldron and ordered some dinner.

Tom brought him his food and left again without a second glance at Harry's forehead. Harry smiled and was grateful that he was finally able to go out into public without people constantly staring at him and his forehead with their mouths hanging open. Though this was only accomplished after numerous charms to change his appearance.

When Harry finished his meal, he still had an hour to waste before his window was open to return to the Dursleys' home. Harry paid for his meal and decided to wander around the shops until he had to leave. As Harry was walking, he passed by _Quality Quidditch_ and did a double take to the store's window. There behind the glass was the most beautiful broom Harry had ever seen. The handle was of a dark mahogany with a golden tip. It reflected the light of the setting sun on the polished wooden handle. Across it, the word '_Tsunami_' was written in gold letters. The twigs at the end of the broom were clipped perfectly and were held together by a gold band at the base of the broom. Harry stood in awe of the broom. He quickly walked into the store and to a man behind a counter. 

"Is that the latest broom model out there?" Harry asked as he pointed to the broom.

"Why yes it is my boy. It's called the Tsunami; it's said to be able to go one hundred kilometers per hour faster than the Firebolt." The man said. Harry's mouth hung open. That was one extremely fast broom. "Yes sir, fastest broom on the planet, and the most expensive too. I can't imagine that I'll sell to many of those." The man sighed as he looked at the broom then turned around to tend to some boxes lying on the ground.

"I'll take one" Harry said to the man. The man froze and then slowly turned around to face Harry.

"I don't think you understand son, _that_" he said as he pointed to the broom, "is the most expensive broom there is. It's not something you can just buy on an impulse, that'll probably eat up your parents' paycheck for the year." He said as he looked at Harry, but Harry was unfazed.

"Well then, how fortunate for me that my parents wont mind me buying myself a birthday present" Harry said darkly. The man still looked at Harry as though he were crazy. "Tell you what, how much cheaper would it be if I traded in my Firebolt for the Tsunami?" Harry asked. The man's jaw dropped down.

"You've…you've got a Firebolt???" the man asked incredulously. Harry nodded his head with a new energy of superiority. 

"That's right, my birthday present during my third year at Hogwarts. So as I was saying, how much less would it be if I trade in my Firebolt for it?" Harry asked.

"Well, I don't know. I've never really had anyone trade in a Firebolt before…" the man stammered. "Firebolts these days go for about three hundred thousand galleons. And of course I would need to fix it up and still make enough money off of it. Merlin, this definitely has to be a first. I suppose I could give you two hundred and fifty thousand galleons for it. And let me see how much the Tsunami is going for." The man excused himself and went to a back room. He returned a minute later with his eyes slightly wide. "It says that Tsunamis cost seven hundred and fifty thousand galleons."

Harry looked a little worried at that. He really wanted that broom, but he didn't want to blow all his money on a broom. But then Harry remembered what the goblin had said at the bank. He _did_ have two vaults full of galleons, and if that were true, then he would probably just spend all of the second vaults gold. He would probably be left with what he originally had. Also, there was the fact that he was trading in his Firebolt for it. After the trade in, he would only be spending, five hundred thousand galleons instead of seven hundred and fifty thousand. But he really wanted that broom.

"I'll take it" Harry said as he stuck out his hand. The man took it in his own and the two shook on it. The man went back into the back room and came back with a contract. Harry panicked. The man would need his name for the contract most likely, and Harry didn't need to be recognized after a full day of being just another teenage boy.  

"I'll need your vault key to Gringotts and your name, or at least the person who it should be delivered to and the location. And also, I'll need your thumbprint at the bottom right here stating that you agree to the trade the prices we discussed. Harry nodded his head at the man in joy. They didn't need his name. He dug out his vault key and pressed it to the parchment where it indicated. The outline of the key was burned onto the parchment in black. Harry then placed his thumb where he had to after reading the contract thoroughly. All that was left was the name of the person whom the store had to deliver the broom to. Harry hesitated for a second. He was tempted to put his own name there, the man would probably think that Harry Potter was a friend of his and that he was buying him a present. But then he thought to himself, "Who buys their friend a present that costs seven hundred and fifty thousand galleons?" Harry smirked as a reply came to him head. "Malfoy." 

Harry bit his lip and then smiled as an idea came to mind. Harry touched the quill to the parchment and wrote a name.

Ethan Black 

            Harry smiled at the man as he handed him back the contract. The man smiled back at Harry. "I must say," the man looked at the contract, "Ethan?" he asked. Harry nodded his head affirmatively. "I must say Mr. Black, this is a very exciting moment for me. I never really thought I would sell many of these. And here I am, selling my second one of the day."

"Second?" Harry asked in confusion. "Who else would have the money and the balls to spend it on the broom?" Harry thought to himself.

The man nodded. "I know, exactly what I'm thinking. Well, you can expect your broom to arrive in a little over a month. They aren't supposed to be released until the tenth of September. If you want to receive the broom on the day it is released, owl your Firebolt to me the ninth, and then I'll send your owl back to you the next day. It should arrive by the time you sit down for breakfast. Just imagine, you'll be one of only two kids at Hogwarts with one of these beauties. 

The man's last comment stuck in Harry's brain as the two once again shook hands and Harry left. If there were two kids at Hogwarts who just bought a Tsunami, who was the other? Harry stepped into the stone walkway in front of the shop. He absent-mindedly checked his watch before his eyes bulged out of his head. It was five to eight and it would take him at least ten minutes to get back to the Leaky Cauldron. Harry took off running in the blink of an eye. 

He finally made it to the Leaky Cauldron's fireplace with forty seconds to spare. "I've got to stop cutting it so close" Harry thought as he bent over and put his hands and his thighs breathing heavily. Harry took one last breath before he reached for the green powder and through it into the fire. 

"Number four Private Drive!" Harry yelled as he was swept away in the flames. 

_What'd you guys think? I hope you liked it. I started this chapter awhile ago and wrote about nine pages of it, but then I put off writing the rest. Tell me what you think! What did you like? What did you hate? What would you have rather read? I need input so I can make this a better story. I know a got a lot of people reviewing on how they hated a whole Draco/Harry friendship, so I gave you a little taste in this chapter to see what your reactions would be. Did you love/hate it? I gotta be honest, writing the Harry/Draco scene was really fun and natural for me. But I don't want to continue something that you guys wont wanna read. But also keep in mind that that is the **nicest** the two will ever be to each other. I don't want them having sleep overs or anything. But to those who have a love for Harry/Draco confrontations, I believe there will most likely be one in the next chapter. LOL, an all out cat fight between then two. Also, I'll address the whole 'Harry not sticking up for Ron and Hermione' issue in the next chapter when he tells them about his trip to Diagon Alley._

_            So I'm finally done with the pre-Hogwarts part of the story. I've really been looking forward to writing the train ride and their days at Hogwarts. I've come up with some more plots for the story and I've planned out the ending of the year. If I get that far, you guys are in for a shocker. I haven't read a story with what I have planned so far, so hopefully I'll be the first and give everyone a big surprise._

_            If you didn't notice, I did work in some of the stuff that you said you wanted to see. Cara the Mord Sith, I put in Harry's trip to the fancy store for you. You got your sharp dressing Harry! MaidenMasherV, I gave you your "Ladies man" Harry, and I'm definitely using some of your suggestions in later chapters. Keep an eye out for them. And SmacksKiller, I gave you your Cho scene that you asked for. I hope you like it! I had fun writing it, and I hope it came out as funny as I pictured it in my head. _

_            So many thank you's to everyone who has reviewed. Shout outs to all of ya'll. _

_And here is the chapter's poll:_

_1) __What did you think of Harry's attitude? Cause I'm planning and upping his rudeness and everything up later in the story._

_2) __What were your opinions on the whole Harry/Draco (NO SLASH!) thing?_

_3) __Do you have ANY suggestions that you would like to see in future chapters?_

_4) __What are some pairings you would like to see for Harry? (I'll tell you that there'll be a lot.) And, what do you think of Harry sleeping around with girls? Is that too much?_

_5) __What do you think of a Ron/Hermione ship? I'm thinking of having them get together (J.K. has been hinting at it since book four). But trust me, it wont be this major thing, just a sub-plot to bring the two of them away from Harry a little._

_6) __Is there any interest in having Ethan Black make another appearance? (I was honestly debating on whether I should revamp my whole story and have Harry return to Hogwarts disguised as Ethan and become a Slytherin and everything, but I like my original plans too much. Maybe an AU fic to this one after I'm done? Or anyone else is free to write one if they want.)_

_7) __How would you like the new Dueling teacher to be? Male? Stern? Young? An original character? Or a character we already know? What about the DADA teacher? I don't have them planned yet, so I need ideas!  _

_Anything else you want to comment on is welcomed. I'm lovin your guys' reviews. Keep em coming. And you guys know that I really take your comments to heart and do my best to include your ideas into the story, so definitely leave me a note on your opinions. And I felt bad about the long wait, so this is a LONG chapter. 13 pages at least. And the next one wont be coming out for awhile cause I need to cram in all my winter break homework cause I haven't done any yet. But I'll try to write as much as possible so I can get another chapter out. If you want me to email you when I update this again, just say so with your email address in your review so I don't gotta go to everyone's author page and copy your addresses. OK? And to Mark Evans, don't worry buddy, I'm gonna email you right after I upload the chapter. So I think that's it! Now I'm off to answer the reviews that were posted after I uploaded the review page thingy. See ya next chapter!_

-gotta B writin

imjustryintokeepitreal@yahoo.com

P.S.- someone mentioned that ff.net isn't allowing people to have a chapter just for review responses. Is that true? And if it is, will I lose my story? Should I be saving my chapters just in case? HELP ME OUT HERE!!! I'll die if I lose my story. I've put a lot of time into it and I don't wanna lose it. 


	5. All Aboard The Hogwarts Express!

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON 

**CHAPTER SIX – **ALL ABOARD THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS!

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Thanks to EVERYONE who has reviewed for this story. I'm at 46 reviews right now. I never thought I'd get that much. LOL, I just started this fic to entertain myself and suddenly all you guys are reading it. So big ups to everyone for reviewing. I appreciate all of them. So check out the 'Review Responses' section for my replies to every review. Sorry it took so long for this chapter to get out, but I was stuck on ideas. But I _have_ worked out something for a Draco/Harry thing that I'm pretty sure everyone will like. I've been emailing my friend Teila (who was completely against a friendship) for a couple of days, and she likes the idea, so hopefully you all will too.

            I know that some of you will be thinking to yourselves, "Why would Lucius do that?" (I'm not going to say what, because it'll ruin the little suspense I have in the chapter). But it will all be explained in a future chapter. And in case you forget, I'll leave a reminder for you in the Author's Note. I know that I said I would address the whole 'Harry not sticking up for his friends in Diagon Alley,' but the scene just kinda naturally drifted away from that confrontation. So let's just pretend that they forgave and forgot, ok? 

*******

            _Harry found himself standing in blackness. There was no light anywhere he turned his head. "HELLO!" he yelled into the black chasm. He moved his feet and felt that he was definitely standing on solid ground. "Where am I?" he pondered as he moved. A feeling of fear and dread overcame him. "Is anyone there!" he yelled. Silence._

_            Just as he was about to yell again, colors flew through the air. Gusts of wind knocked Harry back as the colors began to form objects. Harry was thrown to his feet as a gold dagger flew over his head and collided with a brown shield to form a giant oak door with a golden handle. Harry looked around and noticed that all of the colors were combining to form a room, a rather large and luxurious room to be precise._

_             And just as fast as the colors appeared, they also vanished. Harry stood up from his seat on the stone floor and looked around the room. He was in a dining hall almost the size of the one found in Hogwarts. There were candles everywhere illuminating the beautiful hall. There were emerald green banners with silver trimmings hanging from the walls. There were numerous large paintings hanging as well. Directly in front of Harry was a large wooden table covered in what smelt like delicious food. Sitting at the table were three figures that Harry couldn't exactly make out. He could tell that two were an adult man and woman, and that the third was another man, though he was smaller than the adult. The all sat in silence; that is to say, Harry heard no noise other than the music of a mournful violin in the background.  _

_            Then suddenly there came an explosion from the wall opposite of Harry. Stones from the wall flew everywhere. He looked to his left and heard a scream from a woman in_

_one of the paintings on the wall as a stone flew straight at her. Once the stone hit it, the canvas and frame came crashing down to the floor. Harry could see blood pouring from the woman's head. "Even paintings could die," Harry supposed._

_            He looked back to the three sitting at the table. The woman and the younger man got up from their seats and stood behind the table in front of Harry. The other man merely sat still in his seat. Harry could see the woman trembling as she coward behind the younger man. _

_            Harry watched as twenty dark hooded figures walked into the room. Harry could feel the evil they radiated. The man still sat in his chair and watched as these figures walked calmly into the room. The violin music had at stopped long ago and the room was filled with nothing but silence. _

_            "What are you doing here Avery?" the man snarled at the hooded figure apparently named Avery._

_            "I should as you the same question. Please, enlighten an old friend. What possessed you to go to the Ministry when we were all set free? How could you be such an idiot as to…" but Avery never finished his sentence before the now standing man slapped him in the face and grabbed his robe's collar._

_            "Don't you **dare** lecture me on desertion you pathetic excuse for a Death Eater. You of all people should understand my actions. As you were the one who went to Dumbledore weeping like a woman after a mere child defeated your Lord. So do not think yourself mightier than I." _

_            The man named Avery screamed like an animal and pushed the standing man back. He pointed his finger at the man and growled like a lion. "Don't **you** dare think yourself holier than anyone else in this room. No one forced you to wear these black robes or to take that serpent on your arm. You chose them on your own free will, so do **not** look down upon anyone other than yourself." He stood there with his finger pointed at the standing man. Avery's body rose and fell slightly from his heavy breathing. It appeared to Harry that he might explode. Avery spoke quietly, but clearly, "Take him." The other hooded figures immediately circled the standing man and grabbed him from behind. The man kicked and yelled at the figures to not touch him. Avery nodded his head at one of the figures. The figure then pulled out a dagger and in one movement separated the man's hand from his arm. Harry watched as the man barely flinched at the pain. Harry looked into the man's silver eyes and saw the pain in them, but also the determination. The man would not give the hooded figures the pleasure to hear him scream. _

_            The woman behind the younger man screamed when she saw the limp hand fall t the ground. Avery gave another nod and all but five left the standing man as they moved to take his wife and son. The woman kicked and screamed as the figures took her in their arms and held her down. The younger man was more effective than the woman. He took out a wand and successfully took down three figures before he was also bound in their arms. _

_            "Now do you realize your mistake? You betrayed the Master, and now you and your family will pay." Harry couldn't see, but he was sure that there was an evil smile behind that black mask. But Harry was once again distracted from the scene in front of him, as was everyone else, when he heard another explosion. The second explosion seemed as though it was far away, though still near the room. The standing man smiled broadly at the man he called Avery. _

_            "Same old _stupid_ Avery. You always were rash weren't you? You never stopped to think that I might have a trump card in my hand, did you?" the standing man sneered at the figures holding him. "That explosion was the Ministry. I estimate that they will be entering this room in less than one minute. And as you all know, the manor has anti-apparation wards surrounding it. If you do not vacate _immediately_, then you will surely be caught." The man looked directly at Avery and smirked a familiar smirk to Harry. "Checkmate" he sneered at the hooded figure. _

_            The hooded figure turned his head to the left and right as if looking for something or someone. A feeble, "Master?" came from his lips. Then suddenly it felt as if Harry were being stabbed in his forehead. He dropped down to his knees as the invisible knives kept thrusting themselves into his forehead. His vision was even more blurred when he looked up and saw another dark figure. Even though Harry couldn't make out the exact shape of the figure, he knew who it was._

_            "Voldemort." The whisper came from Harry's mouth as he looked up at the creature._

_            "You are quite right in your mathematics," Voldemort hissed at the standing man. The once confident look on the man's face slowly became one of fear. "Though one minute is not enough time for torture, it does allow enough time for your death." Voldemort lifted his wand and a jet of green light erupted from the tip. It struck the man squarely in the chest. The standing man was thrown back into the figures that were holding him and the group fell to the floor. Voldemort then turned to the wife of the man. The woman was shaking, screaming, and crying all at once. "Quit your incessant cries woman" Voldemort spat at her. She screamed out once again and broke free of the figures holding her. She ran over to the younger man and stepped in front of him, shielding him from Voldemort. _

_            "Leave my son alone. He has done nothing to you!" the woman shouted. _

_            Harry heard Voldemort chuckle as the woman's dead body fell to the floor. "His father has refused my name. Therefore, he shall die as well whore." Voldemort said as he was kneeling next to the woman's dead body. _

_            Just as Voldemort turned towards the younger man, Harry saw numerous figures enter the room from the hole in the wall. Harry assumed it was the Aurors that the standing man had talked of. Voldemort looked in annoyance at the Aurors. He hissed at the Death Eaters. "Finish off the boy!" and in a wave of his cloak, he had vanished. _

_            The 'boy' as he was addressed, was forgotten in the battle as all of the cloaked figures ran from the room. The boy remained standing where his captures had left him. He looked down at his dead parents lying on the ground. An Auror came to the boy and tried to comfort him._

_            "It's okay to cry son," the man said as he rubbed the boy's back. _

_            The boy jerked himself away from the Auror. "I will not cry" he said in a cold voice._

_            Harry looked at the destructiveness of Voldemort and how he managed to separate another boy from his parents. Harry looked at the man that had refused to let the evil figures have the satisfaction of his death. Harry looked at the dead wife and mother on the ground. The wife that had wept for her dead husband, the mother that had tried to save her son and shield him with her own flesh and blood. _

_            Harry's heart went out to the boy that stood there. The boy was he. The man and the woman lying on the floor were James and Lily Potter. The family was his, yet it wasn't. Though the murder was still the same._

            Harry watched as the colors once again leapt from their spots in the room and swam through the air.  The boy became a pale gold sword as he disappeared. Harry was once again standing in a room of darkness.

*******

Harry sat up in his bed at Number Four Private Drive. He looked to his left and saw his reflection in the mirror. The blurred face of the boy in his dream stared back at him. Harry instinctively moved back from the mirror and blinked his eyes. He looked again and saw the face of Harry Potter staring back at him. Harry let out a sigh of relief and muttered something about eating too much McDonalds. Harry's head hit the pillow again for the second time that night, though dreams would not plague the rest of his slumber.

Hours and many miles away, wizards and witches woke up and received their morning mail. Though as soon as their eyes caught the morning headline, the papers flew to the floor. A picture of two tombstones sat under the headline:

"**Malfoy Manor Attacked: Another Parentless Boy Left Behind"**

*******

            Harry awoke early on the morning of September the first. He looked over at his alarm clock and saw that it was six in the morning. He jumped out of his bed and walked over to his closet. He grabbed a pair of black athletic shorts and a simple white short-sleeved shirt. He quickly changed out of his pajamas into the clothes for his morning jog.

            Harry had continued his routine of going out to jog as soon as he got up. He was determined to not be the scrawny child he once was. After his jog he would come back to the house and eat his breakfast, which he followed with homework or extra reading. Then he would make lunch, and once again jog over to the local weight lifting center. He had bought a month's membership with his left over money and was working out five times a week. Harry would then jog back to his house and take another shower before making himself dinner and then heading back to his room for more extra reading. 

            Harry had bought extra books at the bookstore in Diagon Alley on defensive and offensive hexes, charms, and spells. He knew that he would one day have to face Voldemort without Dumbledore there to protect him, and he was determined to be ready for it. Since Harry was not with the Weasleys during the summer, he really had nothing else to do but read and study his books. Harry had already gone through all of the schoolbooks and worked out all of the charms and spells he would have to know for Transfiguration and Charms. He had also mentally worked out most of the potions that were in his potions book. 

Harry smiled to himself as he thought how Hermione would react when he raised his hand before her in the classroom. He was rounding his last corner and saw Number Four come into view. Harry walked into the silent house and made his way to his room to grab some clothes to change into before he headed over to the bathroom to take a shower. 

By the time Harry was done showering and ready to go, it was ten minutes to eight. Harry walked into his room and grabbed his messenger bag from his desk and sat down next to his trunk. He had organized it the previous night and put all of his school supplies and most of his clothes in it. The only clothes that were left were the ones he wore on his jog and the ones he was wearing after he changed. Harry opened up the bag as wide as he could and placed it on the corner of the trunk. The trunk was slowly shrinking and being sucked into the bag. This was a function that Harry had discovered the other day when he left the bag lying on his desk. After Harry came back into the room a few minutes later, he found his desk inside the bag. Harry looked over his shoulder at the empty birdcage. He hadn't seen Hedwig in a month and he missed her. He had sent the other owl with her last message to Hogwarts the previous night. 

Harry walked over and placed the bag under the birdcage as he pushed it into the bag. He then turned around to survey his room so as to not forget anything. As he put his bag across his shoulder, Harry heard the doorbell ring. He slowly made his way down the steps towards the door. When Harry opened the door, an elderly man who was dressed in black robes greeted him. Harry immediately reached for his wand in his picket when he saw the black robes, but then put the thought away when he saw the ministry crest sewn onto the robes. Harry turned around and shut the door behind. A second later Harry was once again facing the man with one of the man's wrists in his hand and his wand pointing at the man in his other. "What are you doing?" Harry asked the man through narrow eyes.

"I was just going to ask if you had any bags that you wanted me to get. You might as well put that wand away son, or else you'll get in trouble for using magic. Using magic in a muggle neighborhood at that as well. We can't be letting these muggles know about our world," the old man lectured Harry. 

Apparently the man didn't recognize him, as he was lecturing Harry rather than ogling at him and his scar. Harry sneered at the man as he let go of his arm and walked towards the car. "You should have thought of that before you wore robes in a muggle neighborhood" Harry called over his shoulder as he got into the limousine. The old man grumbled about brats as he walked back to the car and began driving away. 

Harry laughed to himself when he heard the man complaining about him from the driver's seat. The drive to the train station was uneventful for Harry. He watched as houses turned into buildings. Then buildings turned into fields of grass and farmland. Finally they arrived at the train station. 

The Weasleys pulled into the parking lot of the train station. "Mum, do you suppose that Harry is already here or on his way?" Ron asked his mother. Mrs. Weasley stood leaning over her only daughter Ginny when her son asked her the question. She straightened up and turned around to glare at her sons. Ron jumped in surprise.

"For the last time Ronald Weasley, I do not know! All I know is that Professor Dumbledore made arrangements for Harry to get to the train stations. I'm sorry I left my crystal ball at home!" she screamed. Ron merely nodded and grabbed his trunk from the boot of the car. Ginny left to grab a cart for everyone. Ron turned to Hermione.

"How do you think Harry is? After everything that went on last year?" Ron asked her. Hermione sighed and looked at Ron. "I mean, Sirius is…well, he's gone. And he was all Harry had." Ron put his head down. Hermione reached over and wrapped her arms around him. 

"He still has us, unless you stopped being friends with him without telling me," Hermione said as she placed a soft kiss on his cheek. Ron's ears turned apple red at her display of affection. 

Ron's head went from left to right making sure no one saw them. "Hermione," Ron choked out, "what if my mum saw us!" Hermione just laughed at her boyfriend.

"It's not her I'm worried about," she said as she looked around her surroundings for any sign of a mess of black hair. "Oh, here comes Ginny" Hermione said as she smiled at her boyfriend and patted her trunk. "Thank you," she said in a singsong voice as she moved to talk to the women in the mess of red hair. 

"Hermione please, next time you feel like you have to show my brother you care about him, how about you give him a firm handshake." Hermione had a mock angered expression on her face as she playfully hit Ginny on her shoulder. "I'm quite tired of watching you two snog all summer." Hermione placed her hands on her hips as she used her perfect impression of Prof. McGonagall. Ginny merely laughed at her friend.

"Please Hermione, that look might scare Harry and my whipped brother, but it doesn't have any effect on me," Ginny said sweetly. Hermione laughed at the response and yelled back at Ron to hurry with her trunk. Ron could be heard muttering under his breath as he pulled the three trunks on a cart and pushed it over to the two girls.

"You know, feel free to help me out anytime you want," Ron said as he rubbed his back. He glared at his sister and friend turned girlfriend.

"Aww, but you look so cute doing it," Hermione cooed.

"Really?" Ron said hopefully.

"Sure, keep saying that to yourself," Hermione said as she pat him on the stomach. The three moved to walk into the station when a black limo pulled up to the curb in front of them. The three watched as a driver got out and went to open the door for the passenger.

"Blimey, you suppose Malfoy felt the need to show everyone how rich he was this year? I mean just because—" Ron began before Ginny hit him over the head.

"That is going too far Ron," she reprimanded her brother. The three stood there watching as the driver opened the door. A tell muscular raven-haired boy stepped out from the vehicle. He had semi long hair that covered his forehead and ears. He was very attractive looking with his perfect hair and nice clothes. He was wearing a black button down shirt casually; it was not tucked in, the top couple of buttons hung open, and his cuffs were folded up. He wore dark faded jeans and black shoes. He had on an obviously expensive silver and green watch that matched his sparkling emerald eyes. He carried a black leather back across his shoulder and chest. The boy stood there looking around. He turned and looked at the three friends. Ginny held her breath for a second. The boy's eyes locked with hers and held them, then his eyes traveled over her body.

She raised her eyebrows at him suggestively. The boy in turn also raised his eyebrows, but he did it out of surprise. Ginny rolled her eyes at him and turned to her friends. Ron was the next to meet eyes with the boy. The two held eye contact for a minute before Ron turned away scowling. "Damn Slytherins," Ron mumbled as he caught sight of the green and silver watch the boy was wearing. He put his arm around Hermione's waist protectively. 

Hermione stared at the boy curiously. She couldn't help but think that she had seen him somewhere before. Ron looked at his girlfriend staring at another boy. "Why don't you take a picture Hermione, I'm sure he wouldn't mind," Ron sneered at her.

"Don't go acting like a jealous boyfriend Ronald Weasley. I am only interested in you," she said as she turned to him and poked him in the stomach. "He just looks really familiar. Like I've seen him somewhere before." The two turned back to the boy who was still staring at the two. Ron glared at the boy.

"Oi! Why don't you take a picture mate! And stop staring!" Ron flashed a superficial smile at the boy. The boy looked surprised as he turned and walked away.

"Great going," Ginny said sarcastically. "You scared away the cute boy."

"Since when did you come out of that shy shell of yours?" Ron asked his little sister.

"Oh probably around the time you and Hermione snogged in my room for twenty minutes?" Ginny said sweetly as she ducked to dodge Hermione's arm swinging at her. "Hey, I have an idea," Ginny said as she grabbed hold of Hermione's arms and started pulling her towards the station, "let's see if we can get some seats on the train before we get stuck next to Draco Malfoy." The two girls began walking to the station with Ron grumbling behind the two pushing the luggage cart.

The driver opened the door as Harry stepped out of the car. He looked around at his surroundings. The building looked smaller every year he thought as he grabbed his bag and pulled the strap over his shoulder and across his chest. He turned around when he felt eyes staring at him. To his surprise, there stood three members of Dumbledore's Army. "Dumbledore's Army, what a joke," Harry thought to himself as he looked at the three figures. 

The first that really caught his eye was the beautiful red head next to Hermione. "That's Ginny?" Harry thought as he looked at the girl. She definitely did change over the summer. She stood there wearing a simple pair of tight jeans and a tight white shirt that read 'Hogwarts or Bust' in red letters. Harry smiled when he saw the 'W3' under the writing. Apparently Fred and George had expanded their merchandise. As his eyes roamed over her body, he say Ginny raise her eyebrows at him suggestively. Harry was surprised by her actions. "She's changed more than her wardrobe over the summer" Harry thought as he looked at her. Then what she did next blew his mind. She rolled her eyes at him and turned her attention back to Ron and Hermione. Ginny had never rolled her eyes at him before. She used to worship the ground he walked on. "I guess I'm not the only one who's changed." 

Harry then looked at Ron. But when their eyes met, Harry was not greeted by a smile; he was greeted by a glare. Harry was not one to back down to anyone, so he met the glare ten times more powerful than Ron could ever hope to accomplish. Ron quickly turned away from him and protectively put his arm around Hermione's waist. This surprised Harry. Granted, Harry felt that he was close to Hermione, but he wouldn't put his arm around her waist and pull her close to his body, that was something a boyfriend would do. 

Harry saw Hermione staring at him. He became uncomfortable when her gaze did not move after a minute. She turned to talk to Ron, and then Ron yelled some remarks to Harry, which caught him completely off guard. Harry turned around and walked away. "That wanker better apologize later. I can't believe they didn't recognize me," he thought. 

When Harry stepped on the other side of the barrier, the sight of crowds of people standing on the platform met him. Harry walked around looking for a friendly face. All the people he met were either girls flirting with him, or boys that he never talked to or thought of him as a liar and attention seeker the previous year after the Daily Prophet article came out. Harry walked over to a pillar and leaned against in waiting for Ron, Hermione, and Ginny to come through the barrier.

"…don't know his last name. All I know is that his name is Ethan. We took on the Weasel and Mudblood together. He's supposed to be here. He was home schooled, but he convinced his parents to let him come to Hogwarts" Harry heard from behind the pillar he was leaning on. A smile spread across his face. Malfoy genuinely thought that Ethan was a real Hogwarts student. 

"I can have some fun with this," Harry thought as he turned around and walked to the other side of the pillar. "Waiting for me Malfoy?" Harry asked sinisterly. 

Malfoy looked up from his group of friends and stared at Harry. "Who in the bloody hell are you?" Malfoy sneered at him.

"Take a closer look Sherlock" Harry sneered back.

Malfoy moved closer and squinted his eyes. "Ethan, you charmed your hair. What caused the change? Though I must say the new look suits you" Draco smiled and walked over to Harry and held out his hand.

Harry only looked at the hand and smiled broadly. "Correct, but take a closer look _Malfoy_" Harry said his name almost as if it were an insult to his tongue. Malfoy looked at Harry confused as if he thought he was playing a joke. Harry let out a deep chuckle and drew back the hair that was covering his forehead. Malfoy's confused look turned into one of anger and hatred.

"You bloody bastard," Malfoy hissed at him. 

"Oh come now Malfoy, I thought we were friends?" Harry mocked him. "You said you would show me around school and give me tips on who I should associate myself with. Don't tell me that a little scar will get in the way of that," Harry said as he gave Malfoy a fake puppy dog look.

"Oh, believe me Potter, a lot more than a hideous scar is in between the two of us." If looks could kill, Harry supposed that he would be dead ten times over. But luckily for Harry, he was now used to Draco's death glares. He merely looked back at Draco with a look of indifference. This caused Draco's milky pale skin to turn ever so slightly pink at the boy's action.

Harry knew what he was doing, and he was certainly having fun. "Why did I ever think I wanted to be friends with this guy?" Harry thought as he looked at the other boy. Harry didn't know much about the boy in front of him, but in all his years at Hogwarts, Harry knew enough to know that only one thing was important to a Malfoy; their pride. And Harry had just taken that pride, dressed it in a woman's dress, paraded it in front of the sixth year Slytherins, and waved it in front of Draco's face teasingly. 

Draco raised his wand and pointed it at Harry's neck. "Apparently you forgot my little promise to you last year Potter," he spat. "But I _never_ forget."

Harry merely rolled his eyes and looked back at the boy. "How elephant-like of you. Put that wand away Malfoy, unless you truly hate Hogwarts and do not wish to attend this year. You think you can hex the Boy Who Lived _outside_ of school and get away with it. Your father doesn't even have enough power to—" but before Harry could finish his sentence Draco pushed Harry so hard that he fell on the floor and jumped on top of him. Harry now had his back to the ground and Draco kneeling over him with his arm at Harry's through, and his wand at Harry's scar.

"Don't you _dare_ speak of my father you pathetic excuse for a hero. My father is twice the man you'll ever wish to be. He put your muggle loving father to shame," Draco sneered at Harry. Now it was Harry's turn to retaliate. His emerald green eyes clouded over and became a dark green, almost black. He could feel untamed magic spread through his entire body as he flung Draco off of him. Draco flew into the air and hit the ground with his back. Harry picked up Draco's discarded wand and stood up. He looked at the Slytherins, daring any of them to interfere with his eyes. None of them attempted to even move from their place. 

"Now you listen here Malfoy. I will say this once and only once." Harry said darkly. Everyone who heard him shivered in fear and took a step back. Even though Harry was not addressing them, the seriousness and anger in his voice was enough to scare even Hermione, Ron, and Ginny who had walked up to the group of people. "You will never mention my father or my mother again, do you understand me? You're not worthy to even speak their name" Harry snarled at Draco. He held up the wand that Draco had been holding. He balanced it between two fingers and then snapped it in half. "If you do, I'll break more than your wand." Harry stood up and turned to walk away, but he soon found himself falling to the floor again. 

Draco had been furious with Harry's actions. "Who does this half-blood think he is?" Draco thought as Harry tried his best to cause Draco pain with his eyes. When Harry had stood up to leave, Draco swung his left leg under Harry's and kicked them out from under him. He watched as Harry fell to the ground once again before he jumped up and pounced on top of him once again. Their roles were now reversed. 

"Now _you_ listen _here_ Potter. I'm going to say this once and only once. You hold neither the right nor the honor to speak my father's name or even mention him." Draco spoke with so much venom that the crowd around the two once again took a step back and held their breath. Everyone had seen Draco mad before, but this was a whole new level and anger, even for him. Raw magic could be felt in the air as it radiated from the two teenaged boys on the ground. "So unless you'd like to find yourself in thirty different pieces, I'd suggest you take your 'holier than thou' attitude and use it on someone else. I'm not blind to your arrogance Potter, now get out of my sight quickly," Draco then reached his hand back towards Pansy who was standing behind him. He snapped his fingers at her. The trembling girl reached into her pocket and pulled out her wand and handed it to the waiting hand. Draco then put the wand in front of Harry's face and snapped it in half with two fingers. "because if you don't, then I'll be breaking more than Pansy's wand next time."

Harry snorted a laugh at him. "Please, hurt me as much as you want, but please don't break Pansy's wand" Harry mocked. "Anything but that." Ron, Hermione and Ginny looked at Harry with amazement. First, he looked completely different. He was tall, muscular, and wearing clothes that looked to be expensive _and_ they actually fit him nicely. The second thing was that Harry rarely ever stood up to Malfoy before. Harry always chose to just ignore the boy in the past. Ron was the one who always confront Malfoy with physical retaliation. 

"It only seemed fair to break her wand when you broke some Gryffindor's wand in my face." Draco said simply. Harry stared at the boy for a few seconds before he burst out into laughter. The two stood up and glared at each other once more. 

"Touché" Harry said before the two turned away and walked their separate directions. Harry stopped to pick up his bag that he had discarded right before Draco had pushed hi to the ground the first time. 

Draco turned around and was met by the sight of a weeping Pansy. "Oh come on Pansy, pull yourself together. It was only a wand" he reprimanded her as he started another conversation with his group of Slytherins. 

"Harry," Ron was gawking at his friend. 

Harry turned his head and smiled at the boy. "Oh, so _now_ you know who I am." Harry laughed at the expressions on his friend's face. He put his arm around their shoulders and led them onto the train. "Yeah, we've got a _lot_ to catch up on. Oh, and hello to you Ginny," Harry called the last part of his shoulder.

"Hello yourself Harry Potter," Ginny called back. She giggled to herself when she saw the smirk that Harry had sent to her. She turned and walked over to her group of fifth year friends. "Did you see that? He smiled at me," she said before the entire group of girls started giggling and looking back at the retreating figures as they entered the train. 

*******

"So you're saying that you went to Gringotts and suddenly there was all this money in your vault?" Ron asked incredulously.

            "Yeah, and it gets even weirder. It was deposited by Dumbledore himself" Harry said. Hermione sat back in her seat and got that look in her face that said she was thinking very hard. 

            "I wonder why Prof. Dumbledore gave you all that money," Hermione said.

            "Are you serious?" Ron asked his two friends. They both looked at him with confused expressions. "Isn't it obvious why Harry suddenly got all this money from Dumbledore?" Ron asked. He looked at his two friends and he suddenly looked very smug. "Well, it looks like I've outsmarted my very beautiful girlfriend for once." As soon as he finished his sentence, both he and Hermione froze where they sat. 

            Harry arched an eyebrow at the two. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw you two outside the train station. We'll talk about that later, but tell me what you think Ron."

            Ron looked very nervous since he had blatantly announced his and Hermione's new relationship in front of his best friend. The two had planned to sit down with Harry and talk the matter over. They wanted him to be eased into the new situation. Instead Ron, in typical fashion, he accidentally blew the plan away and instead slammed Harry in the face with the news. "Uh, well I could be wrong—but I thought that it was probably S-Sirius' money. I'm guessing that Dumbledore took control of all of Sirius' money and property since old Black Manor is the Order's Headquarters. So I'm g-guessing that he gave you all of Sirius' money when he di—when he passed—when, well—" Ron sputtered the last part of his explanation.

            "When Sirius died?" Harry asked him lazily. Ron nodded.

"Honestly Ron, dancing around the fact that Sirius isn't here anymore doesn't exactly help Harry's situation," Hermione scolded her boyfriend. 

"Please Hermione, what exactly is my situation?" Harry asked in his best sweet voice.

"Well—that would—uh—you see—what I meant was," Hermione sputtered the same as Ron had.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. But that does make a lot of sense. I mean the manor did belong to Sirius since he was the last Black. The property should have gone to the Ministry to be auctioned off. I'll have to talk to Dumbledore when we get to school." Harry had said the last part to himself. He looked over at his two friends who were looking at him and each other nervously. "Oh come off it you two, grow up. You two are dating, I've been waiting years for this to happen. Just don't feel free to snog each other while I'm around." Ron and Hermione both sighed in relief. Ron smiled at his friend and Harry smiled back. "So Ron, is she a good kisser?" the two boys laughed. 

Hermione shook her head and muttered a simple "Boys," under her breath. "wait Harry," Hermione began, "why were you and Malfoy fighting?" she asked.

Harry just rolled his eyes. "Long story. Do you two remember that boy that was standing next to Malfoy in '_Wonderfully Written_'?" Harry asked his two friends. They both nodded affirmatively. "Well, that was me. And I just thought I'd have a little fun with him. Just a little teasing, then I mentioned his father and he went crazy. I don't know what's with him."

"Honestly Harry, don't you know?" Hermione asked him. Harry looked at her with a blank expression. Hermione sighed and reached into her bag and pulled out a Daily Prophet newspaper that was a month old. Harry scanned the headline and looked up at his two friends. They shook their heads. Harry went back to read the article. The description of what happened was extremely familiar to Harry. 

"Why does this seem so familiar?" Harry wondered as he read. He began searching his mind for any recollection of what it might be. He got a headache and his scar began to hurt. 

"You alright mate?" Ron asked when he saw his friend put a hand over his scar. 

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little headache." Harry shook his head and put the paper on the seat next to him. "Maybe I'm just making it up," he thought as he dismissed the thought that the article was familiar to him. 

"So how was your summer Harry? You've certainly changed" Hermione said giving him a pointed look.

Harry blushed and laughed lightly. "Yeah, I guess I have changed." His two friends gave him a look that said 'that's an understatement.' "Well, I'm just tired of being pushed around. I know that in the past I've been really into being the hero and putting everyone else before myself. I guess it's just time for me to be a normal kid. I've always been a hero my entire life. I just want to be normal Harry Potter for once." Hermione and Ron nodded their agreement.

Suddenly the compartment door opened and Colin Creevey stepped in with his camera. He took a picture of Harry and blinded the boy. Harry let out an annoyed sigh as he tried to rub his vision back. "Harry, that was amazing what you did back there. No one else has ever been able to give it to Malfoy like that before. Finally showed him who's boss. I was just wondering, could you autograph—" but before he could finish his sentence, Harry had pushed him out of the compartment and closed the door. The trio heard a muffled "Nice to see you again Harry" from the other side of the door. Harry shook his head.

"Oh yeah, normal Harry Potter," Ron mocked. He laughed and ducked a pillow that flew at his head. Harry laughed as well and ducked when Ron threw the pillow back.

Hermione just shook her head and muttered to herself, "Boys."

*******

The trio had spent the rest of the train ride talking and catching up with each other. Ron and Hermione explained how the two became an item. Hermione had come to stay at the Burrow for part of the summer.

"Yeah, so one day we were all playing Quidditch in the back yard one day. I somehow convinced Hermione to get on a broom and play Keeper.  She just had to move a few feet to the left and right, no major flying. I thought it was safe and she could keep out of trouble," Ron smiled. Hermione hit him on the shoulder and he coiled away from her and let out an "Oww!" He rubbed his shoulder.

"Oh shut up you big baby," Hermione teased as she rubbed his shoulder and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Ron smiled and turned red as Harry rolled his eyes at the two. "Anyway, so I was playing Keeper when him, Ginny, Fred and George played Chasers. Bill was the other Keeper, he got a transfer to the Gringotts in Diagon Alley so he was staying at the Burrow until he found his own flat." Harry nodded and Hermione continued the story. "So as I was saying, I was the Keeper. It was me, Ron and Fred against everyone else. Well, Ginny had the Quaffle and was flying straight at me. I might have gotten excited and accidentally—" but she was cut off by Ron's hearty laugh.   

"You might have gotten excited and accidentally did something? Please Hermione!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione stared at Ron and sent a death glare at him as she crossed her arms over her chest in annoyance. "So like _I_ was saying, the teams were just like Mione said. So I'm doing a down right bloody good job as Chaser," Hermione let out a laugh at Ron's comment about himself, he looked at her and glared, "well I was! Anyway, so I'm flying down the pitch with the Quaffle when I thought I saw a Bludger coming at me, so I—" he was cut off once again by Hermione's laughter.

"A Bludger Ron?" Hermione asked. Ron once again glared at his girlfriend. "Let me tell you what really happened. After several attempts at stealing the Quaffle from his _little sister_, he finally gets it when she drops it after a Bludger is sent at her head. So Ron picks it up and screams like a little girl when he sees a cute little bird fly at least twenty feet in front of him." Harry laughed at his best friend's antics. Hermione turned and looked at her boyfriend lovingly. "It was a sweet little bird Ron, not a Bludger." Ron turned bright red.

"Well, since you've told him how I played, why don't I tell Harry how _you_ played Dear." Hermione's smile faded and a scowl spread across her facial features. "So there's Hermione on her broom in front of the goals. She's sitting there for about five minutes not having to do anything. Finally Ginny gets to the other side of the pitch. She's flying straight at Hermione. Hermione at this point was spacing out and ignoring the game. She finally looks up and sees Ginny heading straight at her. Now this is the good part," Ron said trying to contain his laughter. Hermione was turning red and shooting death glares at both Ron and Harry who was now laughing lightly at her expression. "So Hermione looks up and sees Ginny flying straight at her. Oh, and I'm right on Ginny's tail at this point. So Hermione looks up and screams like a bloody banshee! She starts jerking around on her broom and just tips over to the left and is falling. So I have to go down to save her. I catch her, but since this is Hermione, she's still kicking and screaming. So now that he's on my broom, she kicks me and I accidentally let go of her and she falls straight into the bushes below us." Harry at this point had fallen off his seat and was on the floor rolling around in laughter. Ron had been telling the last part of his story in broken up phrases because after every three or so words, he would start laughing. Ron soon joined him as the two boys were lying on the floor and laughing hysterically. 

"Well honestly," Hermione scolded, "it could happen to anyone." This caused the two to laugh even harder. "Boys," Hermione murmured again.

Neville Longbottom entered the compartment a few minutes later to find a laughing Harry and Ron on the floor and an extremely annoyed Hermione sitting on her seat above the two. "Did I come at a bad time?" Neville asked.

Ron's laugh subsided a little as he looked at Neville. "Oi, Neville, sit down. I've got a great story to tell you," Ron began before he was cut off.

"Don't you dare Ronald Weasley!" Hermione yelled. Harry and Ron laughed even more, and soon, Neville was laughing at the two boys on the floor. This caused Harry and Ron to laugh even harder and shake slightly. Neville then began laughing more at the sight of the two shaking on the ground. The cycle continued until all three boys were on the floor laughing and Hermione was on the other side of the door muttering, "Boys," as she walked down the train corridor to go find Ginny. 

*******

All right! One more chapter done! I hope you guys liked the ending. It was funny in my mind, but I don't know how it'll come across to you guys when you read it. As you noticed, I gave you a little Harry/Draco confrontation. So as I stated before, I've finally come up with an idea of how Harry and Draco will be in the future. Things will pretty much be like they were in this chapter for the most part. 

I want to thank all of you guys for reviewing. I'm using as many suggestions from reviewers as I can. So keep those coming! Umm…to all of those Neville fans out there, he'll have a pretty prominent character in this fic, so cheers to you guys. I felt like at the end of book 5, he was sort of becoming this completely new Neville. So he'll be really different in this fic than in previous books, mostly because I think that this is his next level. The real Neville without all his insecurities and shyness. Also, I've decided who the new DAD teachers and Dueling teachers will be. And yes, I said DADA teacher'S'. I know someone asked that Tonks teach, and as I've said before, your wish is my command. She will be part of the teaching team at Hogwarts this year. Woohoo! Let's see, what else…Ron and Hermione are together. But don't worry, to those people who were against the idea, it wont be anything major. This isn't a Ron/Hermione ship fic, it's a Harry fic. And I tried to make their interactions be as little lovey dovey as possible. There's also a new and improved Ginny in this fic. Can I get an Amen!? She will be Harry's first conquest at Hogwarts I've decided, so stay tuned for that. 

All right, here is the poll for this chapter:

1) What did you think of this chapter? I want feedback people! LOL

2) What other girls would you like Harry to hook up with?

3) Who would you like to see make the Quidditch team? I've got a rough idea on who I want, but I would definitely like some input on that.

4) What would you like to happen while Harry's at Hogwarts? I've got a rough outline of what will happen to him, but I could definitely use some ideas from you guys. So keep those coming.

5) What do you guys think of me including some of Harry's sex scenes in this story? Cause if I do, then I'll have to up the rating to R. is that OK? Or would you like some semi-sexual scenes? Or would you prefer no sex scenes period? Like them just going into his room and then they come out the next morning, leaving it to the imagination. Would they offend anyone? This is an important one.   

I think that's about it. If you guys think of anything else, feel free to put that in your review. Once again major props everyone who has reviewed and continues to review. I love you guys. So keep em coming. Until next chapter. PEEEEEEEACE!__

gotta B writin

imjustryintokeepitreal@yahoo.com

**NEXT CHAPTER:** Harry arrives at Hogwarts, gets his classes, has a run in with his favorite potions teacher, does a little flirting with young Ms. Weasley, and anything else you guys can think of. 


	6. Wherever the Battle Lies

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON                                                                                                       - CHAPTER SIX – WHEREVER THE BATTLE LIES… 

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Hey! Sorry for the long wait. But I just finished my finals today (Friday) so I'm FREE! *Happy Dance* So yeah. As you might have noticed, the all powerful and annoying ff.net chose to ERASE my first "Author's Note" and my "Review Responses" chapters. Which I'm going to say SUCKS! Plus I was 'warned' of my 'illegal' activity or whatever. So actually I wont be able to upload this chapter till the 17th because I'm not allowed to upload till then. So, obviously I wont be able to respond to each review, but you know that I got love for all of the reviewers! So keep on reviewing (please! LOL) and feel free to email me anytime you want. Someone's already taken me up on that offer (Teila!). So here's the new chapter:

SPECIAL NOTE – A lot of people have been mentioning how they don't want this to be slash. And I thought I posted it in a author's note before, but I dunno. But for everyone who's nervous about it, don't be. NO SLASH! THIS IS NOT A SLASH STORY! NO SLASH ALERT! I'm a guy, and I don't want o be writing that sort of thing. So if you were hoping I was, sorry. And if you were hoping I wasn't, well isn't it your lucky day. Aaaaaand, someone asked where chapter 4 was. Cause I think that the chapter titles skip from three to five. Well, I know I put why it's like that in the 'Review Responses' section, but since ff.net chose to be a punk, I'll explain it now. I used to have a author's note as the first chapter to the story. And the actually first chapter started as the second chapter. So I was like "I'll just switch the numbers so the chapters actually match the chapter titles. But then ff.net deleted my author's note chapter and the 'Review Responses' chapter, so all the chapters are all weird. LOL, that and I'm too lazy to actually fix the problem. So just ignore the chapter numbers. But don't worry, there are no missing chapters. That was probably a really confusing explanation, so sorry. Enjoy the chapter. 

***

The students entered the old and grand castle. The Great Hall was abuzz with conversations and greetings to friends and teachers that hadn't been seen for months. Friends laughed and lovers embraced each other. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny all made their way over to the Gryffindor House table. The group talked amongst themselves when Prof. McGonagall cleared her throat and the next class of wizards and witches entered the gigantic room. 

Child after child stepped up to the stool and slipped the Sorting Hat on top of their heads. 

The ceremony and feast were uneventful. Dumbledore made his annual speech to the students. He talked of the war with Voldemort, the new dress code, the new Dueling Class (in which the teacher for the class would not arrive until the next day), the two new Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers (who would also arrive the next day), and also made the same announcements he did every year.

"And Mr. Filch wishes me to remind all students to please be respectful of the castle and not track in any unwanted dirt or mud" Dumbledore eye's sparkled as he said this. Every year he made the same request on Mr. Filch's behalf, and every year it would only take hours until the request was ignored. The student that would break it this year would be one Ronald Weasley. 

"Bloody hell!" Ron yelled in frustration at Harry. Harry stood at the entrance doors looking at his friend. Ron was covered head to toe in mud. As he walked to the two, he tried to remove the mud from his arms by flailing them around like a psychotic bird. "Please tell me why we can never study _normal_ animals with Hagrid. What is this crazy need to torture us with _stupid_ monsters that splatter us with mud!" Ron yelled in frustration when he looked at his robes and saw that his Prefect Badge was covered in mud.

The Ron and Hermione had just spent the last hour and a half with Hagrid as he taught his Care of Magical Creatures lesson to the Hogwarts Sixth Years. The day's lesson covered the magical creature the Lopumson. Lopumsons were creatures that lived under the ground, much like worms. They looked like small dogs that had snake-like scales covering their bodies instead of hair. The students had 'the simple task of feeding the creatures' as Hagrid had put it. The job of feeding the creatures was easier said than done. Before the Lopumsons could be fed, they first had be removed from the Earth. It took the entire class to extract the creatures from the ground and even then only a handful of the groups were able to successfully get the creatures out of the dirt. That was when the mud started flying. Ron had finally wrestled the Lopumson to the ground. The creature let out a shrill cry and started spitting large amounts of saliva everywhere. That caused the dry dirt to turn into mud. Seamus and Neville were another group that got their Lopumson out of the group. When Neville held the creature down, it too began coping the first creatures actions. The dry grassy area soon became a large puddle of mud. The students were slipping and sliding and falling down on the ground. All the while, the two Lopumsons continued to spit out saliva and kick and twist and do whatever they could to get out of the grip that the two boys had on them. The kicking and twisting sent the mud on the ground flying in every direction. Hagrid finally gave into their cries of help and gathered all the Lopumsons and placed them all in a large pen. 

Harry looked at his two friends and laughed. The sight was too much for him. While Hermione was completely covered in mud, she still held the air of sophistication that always surrounded her. Ron on the other hand was the complete opposite. He was complaining and using every profanity Harry had ever heard, and then some. He accompanied his dirty mouth with actual dirt that was flying in every direction due to his flaying arms. 

"My, my Weasley" Ron heard a sneer from behind him, "it seems you've finally found a way to cover up those hideous marks you call freckles." Draco Malfoy and his group of Slytherins all laughed at the Gryffindor. 

"Leave him alone Malfoy, don't try and stir up trouble" Hermione reprimanded from her spot a few feet from her boyfriend.

"Aww, how adorable. The Weasel's girlfriend is defending him. Where's that annoying Creevey boy with his camera? I'm sure we would all love to capture this moment" Malfoy said. The Slytherins all laughed at Malfoy's joke. 

Harry sneered at Malfoy. "I don't know Draco. Why don't you check up your arse? I hear a lot of boys spend a lot of time up there." Draco's laughing stopped immediately. Harry smirked at his victory. Ron was ecstatic when the Slytherins actually laughed at their ringleader.

"Really Potter, you should stop dreaming such things," Draco held his hand up and the Slytherins ceased their laughing. 

Ron smirked at Malfoy. "I think you're the one that's dreaming Malfoy." 

Draco looked at Ron as if he were uninterested. "Why are you still here Weasel? I know your family can't afford water, but Hogwarts can. So why don't you take advantage of it and take a shower." Ron turned red and was about to hurt Malfoy when Hermione caught him by the arm.

"Ron," she whispered, "leave him be. He isn't worth getting in trouble." Ron looked at her doubtfully. Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh honestly, stop being such a prat and get to the showers. You're starting to smell" Hermione said as she gave him a light push towards the school. 

Ron turned around and smiled at his girlfriend, "You know you aren't exactly smelling like a rose." He winked and continued walking up to the castle doors. 

"Seems as if the Mudblood has you wrapped around her finger Weasel. It is rather pathetic if you ask me," Draco called after the retreating Ron. 

Ron stopped inside the doorway; he was standing next to Harry facing the opposite direction. Harry looked on at the scene and Ron had his back to it. He sighed and shook his head. "Malfoy, if you haven't noticed, me turning my back and walking away means that I'm done with you." Draco scowled at Ron. "Oh yeah, and later tonight when you're alone wanking yourself in your bed, I'm going to be with my oh-so-beautiful girlfriend that has me 'wrapped around her finger' as you put it." Ron turned around and grinned at Hermione and then winked at Draco before he turned and walked into the castle and out of view. Harry laughed out right at Ron's words and Hermione and Draco both turned red.

Hermione turned and followed her boyfriend into the castle. Harry still leaned against the doorframe and laughed lightly at the other boy. "Happy wanking," Harry said as he saluted Draco and turned followed his friends. 

Draco glared at the empty doorway, "Bloody Potter."

***

 Harry walked down the hall. They were finished with their morning classes. Harry, Ron, Neville, and Hermione all had Charms in the morning with Prof. Flitwick. They had started with conjuring objects out of nothing. Harry and Hermione were the only two students that were able to successfully conjure a feather. They were also the only two students who had actually read the entire Charms textbook for the year. 

Harry did not have a second class. He had a study block for his next class. Since he only elected to take seven courses, Dumbledore saw it fit to give Harry a block time to practice and perfect his magic. Every time he had his study block, Harry was to report to the Room of Requirements and there would be a 'To Do' list for Harry to complete before his time was up. Since it was his first day, the list just had him review various curses, hexes and spells that he had learned in his previous years. Dumbledore showed up at the end of his time and asked him to perform all that was on the list.

As Harry walked through the corridors, all the girls that passed gave him the once over and smiled and waved at him shyly. Harry merely smirked at their actions and nodded his acknowledgement at them. All the new attention he was receiving was still new to Harry. He was surprised when earlier that day a group of Slytherin girls acted that way towards him.

"Maybe it was the glasses," Harry speculated as he walked towards Gryffindor Tower. He had gone straight to Madame Pomfrey that morning for her to perform the proper spell on his eyes. Harry had happily taken the certificate she handed him and walked off towards the Charms classroom.

Harry was now walking through the Fat Lady's Portrait. As he walked into the Common Room, he sneered at the group of seventh year boys that were smiling and waving at him. Granted they acted as though Harry was their best friends this year, but memories of the previous year and years before that still remained in Harry's mind. They were the same group of boys that whispered about him during his second year when everyone thought he was the Heir of Slytherin. They were also the same group of boy's that glared at him and talked about him behind his back when '_Harry Potter_' came from the Goblet of Fire. And they were also the same boys that sneered remarks about him being 'The-Boy-Who-Wanted-Attention' and 'The-Boy-Who-Lied' his previous year when he claimed that Voldemort had returned.

Harry walked up to the sixth year boy's dorm and stepped into the room. Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas were both sitting on some chairs and talking with each other. The two turned and smiled at Harry when he walked in. Harry merely rolled his eyes and ignored the two. The previous year Harry and Seamus had gotten in a fight over Voldemort. Granted Dean did not call Harry a liar, but he also had a history of treating Harry unfairly. 

Ron finally exited the shower room with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Took you long enough" Harry remarked. He rolled his eyes and the then the two laughed. "That look on Malfoy's face was priceless Ron," Harry praised his friend. Ron smiled and stood up a little straighter. "I have to congratulate you mate. But since when did you become Mr. In Control around him? Usually you snap at him if he breathes in your direction" Harry asked him. Ron shrugged his shoulders in response. He pulled a dark blue sweater over his head. 

"I don't know, it's just that after—" but he stopped and looked at Seamus and Dean who were obviously listening in on their conversation. Harry turned and glared at the two. They both stood up and rushed polite good-byes when they met Harry's eyes. Harry smirked as the two ran out of the room. Harry had found that he had a natural talent for intimidating people. His muscular body, six-foot height, and name definitely didn't hurt him in that area. 

Ron rolled his eyes at his friend. "I still don't get why you've become the next Draco Malfoy," he confessed. Harry glared at him and Ron flinched slightly. "You're getting pretty good at that you know." Harry smirked. Ron just smiled and shook his head. "But seriously, you're acting like an arse to the rest of the House." Harry rolled his eyes and turned away and walked over to his trunk. "Come off it Harry, what's the deal? What's up with the change?" Ron demanded. Harry just ignored him and started looking through his trunk. "Harry!" he yelled angrily. Ron had immediately noticed his friend's change. At the feast, Harry would only talk to him, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny civilly. Whenever another student tried to start a conversation, Harry would sneer at them and turn back to one of the aforementioned students. It bothered Ron how easily Harry could act so cruel to his own friends.

Ron got his wish when Harry turned around glaring and threw a newspaper at him. Ron jumped back slightly surprised. "That's what's with the change!" Harry yelled venomously. Ron looked down at the headline that read '**The-Boy-Who-Lived Attacks The Minister With His Words Again: Harry James Potter Speaks Out Against Minister Fudge And Seeks Even More Attention**'. Ron looked back up at the glaring Harry confused. 

"That's what's with the change. Am I the only person that remembers what things were like last year? Am I the only one who remembers how half the school treated me last year" Harry spat. Ron flinched. "Huh? How about my fourth year here? How about we talk about that?" Ron took a step back at Harry's statement. He had attacked Harry and called him a liar that year. He had been jealous that Harry had been chosen as the second Hogwarts Champion in the Triwizard Tournament. "What about my second year? Let's talk about 'Harry Potter the Heir of Slytherin'. Let's talk about how everyone thought I was the one attacking the students; about how everyone whispered behind my back." Harry's bright emerald eyes turned a dark green as he spoke. "Or let's talk about how everyone wanted to be my best friend again when they heard that I saved Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets and how everyone just chose to ignore the fact that they treated my like shit!" Harry yelled. 

"Harry—" Ron started.

"But why stop there! Let's talk about how everything that's come out of Dumbledore's mouth has been a half-truth. How he neglected to tell me about the prophecy, _my_ prophecy. About how he hasn't told me anything until _after_ I've needed the information!"

"Harry, I'm sure—"

"How about my childhood. How about my so-called family? Let's talk about them. My Uncle is a great conversation starter! Wanna hear about the time he beat me until I was unconscious?" Harry yelled his question. Ron's mouth dropped slightly. "You do? Well which one? Cause I have a lot of those stories. Or how about the stories of how I would cry myself to sleep because they told me that I was useless, a freak, a nuisance, and a waste of life. I've got a lot of those!" Harry spat.

"How do you think a seven year old handles that? How would you like to live that life? _My_ life!?" Ron tried to find an answer for his friend. It was true, he knew that Harry never had the perfect life, but he never knew that everything had affected him so much. Harry would always just shrug everything off like it didn't hurt him. It now seemed that Harry had only been masking his real emotions and they had just gotten to the point where he couldn't hide them anymore. 

"I hope I answered your question. That's why I'm like this, that's why I've become this new person. Because of you!" Ron flinched once again. A feeling of guilt overwhelmed him. "Because of Dumbledore! Because of them!" Harry yelled as he waved his arms around indicating the school. "But most of all, because of him," Harry yelled with so much anger that Ron was momentarily scared for his life. Harry pointed his finger at the scar on his forehead. 

The two boys did not noticed as Colin Creevey's stuck his head into the room. "Umm, Harry? Hermione asked me to tell you that it's lunch and that—" 

Harry cut the stuttering boy off before he could finish his message. "GET OUT!" Harry yelled. Colin jumped up in fright and banged his head hard on the doorframe. He quickly closed the door and ran away from the room while rubbing his head. 

Harry sighed and slid down the wall that he had been leaning on for support throughout his rant. He sat with his knees in front of his face and placed his hands on his head in defeat. All the anger and hatred that he had had during his speech had disappeared. The only feeling that Harry had now was exhaustion.

Ron walked over to Harry and sat down next to his friend. He took in a deep breath and mentally collected his words. He didn't know what to say to his friend. "Look Harry, I'm sorry—"

"Don't worry about it Ron. I'm—I'm sorry. I didn't mean to blame you. You've been the best friend a guy could ever ask for, and here I am yelling at you. I'm sorry, I should have taken everything out on you, it's just that—"

"You've been keeping all of that inside you for your entire life. I get that now. I never knew that all of this hit you so hard mate. You just always kinda shrugged it off; I guess I just thought that it didn't bother you. And you don't have to apologize. I've been a royal git to you before. And I'm sorry for that."

The two boys smiled and got up off the floor quietly. The spoken and unspoken words that had been said more than explained what each boy was thinking. The two walked out of the room and headed down to the Great Hall to salvage the little time that they had left for lunch.

***

"Well, it took you long enough. It's not like you two to miss most of lunch, where were you?" Hermione reprimanded the two boys as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table. 

The two shared a smile over her head and Ron affectionately ruffled her straight hair. The once smooth hair started to return to it's once frizzy texture before Hermione glared at her boyfriend and began smoothing her hair.

"Good ol 'Mione, always looking out for her two best guys," Harry smiled. The two boys leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Hermione turned red as she noticed every single girl in the Great Hall turn and glare daggers at her.

"It looks as though you two have quite a fan club," Ginny teased as she surveyed the female population of Hogwarts. Many of the girls turned and started talking in hushed tones. Every now and then they would turn back and glare at Hermione some more, but she would only ignore the attention.

"Jealous?" Harry purred at the beautiful red head.

Ginny cocked her eyebrow upwards and laughed slightly. "Only in your dreams Potter."  Harry sent her his new signature-charming smile and she blushed. Ron looked back and forth between the two. He was about to say something when Hermione lightly hit him on the arm and signaled him to be quiet. 

The rest of lunch passed quickly. Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Neville waved to Ginny as they made they're way out of the Great Hall towards the Defense classroom.

"I wonder what the new teacher will be like." Hermione thought out loud as the group walked through the halls.  

"I don't care, as long as they actually teach us something this year they'll be alright in my book," Neville offered his opinion. Ron and Harry both nodded their agreement. Harry smiled as the four rounded a corner. Neville had changed greatly over the summer. He was no longer was the shy nervous short fat boy that he had been. Neville had changed over the summer in more ways than one. Over the years, he had lost his baby fat and now had the body of an average sixteen-year-old boy. His personality had also changed. Ron and Harry had discovered this on their train ride to Hogwarts. Gone were the days of the seemingly weak Neville. He was now more confident in himself and was able to carry a conversation without stuttering. Harry and him had gotten into a mock fight while arguing over Quidditch. The blonde hair boy made a joke about their previous Defense teacher, Prof. Umbridge, as they turned yet another corner.

The four finally made it to the classroom with two minutes to spare as they took at a center table in the room. The desks that used to occupy the room were gone. They had been replaced with six tables that could seat four people. The room was soon full of talking students when classes had begun. The students sat at their tables looking around and talking to one another after five minutes of no teacher walking through the door. 

Dean Thomas stood up. "Oi! Does anyone know where this new teacher is?" he yelled out. Before anyone could answer him, a beam of red light slowly shot through the air and hit him square in the back. Dean's body fell to the floor. The people around him immediately backed away from his unconscious body. Many of the girls covered their mouths with their hands in fear. Most of the students could be divided into two groups: those that were scared and looked around with fright or those that turned to their neighbor and asked them what was going on. 

Harry and his friends immediately pulled out their wands. Hermione wasted no time in putting up a shield around the table. Another red beam made it's way across the room heading straight towards Draco Malfoy. But before the beam could hit its mark, it was blown off course by a spell cast by Malfoy. The boy frowned and looked around the room looking for his attacker. 

Mandy Brocklehurst, Susan Bones, Owen Cauldwell, Michael Corner, and Justin Finch-Fletchley were all rendered unconscious before the attacker finally revealed them self. A middle-aged woman with brown hair in a tight bun and piercing blue eyes appeared behind the teacher's desk. She was wearing dark red robes and held a wand in her hand. She had a very angry expression on her face as she surveyed the classroom.

"Stupefy" Harry whispered as a powerful beam of red light shot from the tip of his wand and headed straight for the woman. He was not the only student to retaliate. Draco Malfoy sent a disarming spell towards the woman. Ron, Hermione, and Neville also attacked with their own different curses. 

The woman merely waved her wand and all the spells disappeared. "Enough!" she barked. Ron, Hermione, and Neville all lowered their wands but Harry and Draco still held their pointing at the woman. She looked at the two sharply before she slowly smiled. "Ten points to both Misters Potter and Malfoy. Well done, never lower your wand unless you are sure it is safe to do so. And even then, always keep them ready to attack," she said as she peered at Ron who had laid his wand in the table. He blushed slightly and picked his wand back up.

Draco and Harry were about to open their mouths to ask a question when the woman interrupted them. "I knew your name because I knew your father Mr. Malfoy. Besides, your looks do not hide your Malfoy heritage. As for you Mr. Potter, it was a matter of deduction. It is common knowledge that where Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger are, you are not far. And the other young man at your table does not fit your description. Now, if that was all, allow me to introduce myself." Harry and Draco both leaned back in their seats as if satisfied by her response.

"I am Prof. Rasmussen. I will be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the year. First off, I must say that I am extremely disappointed in your performance just now. When the first young man fell to the floor, I only a handful of students pull out their wands and even fewer put up any sort of shield." Prof. Rasmussen looked at each of the students directly before she continued. 

"I have been informed of your previous professor's incompetence and I have taken that into account. I was told that all you did was learn theory last year and no practical lessons?" she asked. All the students nodded affirmatively. "Well then, I suppose it is up to me to bring you back up to the level that you should be at. Now line up everyone." All the students stood up and all the tables and chairs were pushed to the back of the classroom. 

"Now since you all have a Dueling Class this year, let's start off with something easy like Dementors." Everyone in the class took a step back in surprise except for Harry and Draco. "Now, now, do not worry, I'm not expecting you to be able to produce a Patronus right now. But I want you to be able to get used to the effects of being around one and not be hindered by them. Now, I have conveniently secured a Bogart for today's lesson and been able to trap it in the form of a Dementor. Now I will be releasing it as each of you step up and will be requiring you to perform selected curses and spells with the Dementor there next to you." The students all looked nervous at the thought of having to perform magic while a Dementor was standing right behind them. 

"Now do we have any volunteers?" Prof. Rasmussen asked as she looked around the class. All the students avoided eye contact with their teacher. The only two that would meet her eyes were Harry and Draco. "Alright then Mr. Potter, why don't we start with you?" Harry nodded and walked over to her. She motioned to the wardrobe that Harry had failed to notice. It sat in a corner of the room. She told that Harry that she was about to release. Harry nodded his head and the professor opened the door. 

A feeling of sadness and pain overcame Harry. Flashes of his mother, father, and a green light appeared when he closed his eyes. These reactions were anything but new to him. "Get yourself together Potter" he reprimanded himself. He looked up and saw the dark hooded figure that was standing in front of the wardrobe. 

"Are you alright Mr. Potter?" Prof. Rasmussen asked him. Harry nodded and the teacher continued. "Very well, let's start with something simple. Please levitate this quill into my hand," she said as she placed her quill on the floor in front of her. 

Harry nodded and aimed his wand at the quill. __

_Harry was standing in the Chamber of Secrets in his second year. He had just killed the giant basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor. He looked down and saw his large flesh wound where the snake had bitten him. Pain shot up and down his left arm. His vision got blurry as he crumpled to the floor._

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry said as he raised the quill off the floor and guided it to his professor's out stretched hand.

She smiled and nodded her head. "Good, now let's make things a little harder. Fire a stunning curse at me." Harry nodded his head and tried to concentrate.

_The graveyard appeared. Harry heard a snake-like voice his, "Kill the spare." Harry watched in horror as he once again saw the green light travel through the air and strike Cedric Diggory. The handsome boy's body crumpled to the ground with a look of utter terror on his face. Harry inhaled deeply. The scene around him fast-forwarded until he saw Wormtail step over to him and stab him in the arm. Pain shot up and down his left arm again as he felt the smooth metal pierce his skin._

"Stupefy!" Harry said shakily. The red beam shot out from the end of his wand and headed straight for the professor. She just waved her wand and the spell disappeared just as it had before. 

"Very good Mr. Potter. Now I'm going to fire a disarming spell at you. I want you to put up a shield around yourself to block the spell, alright?" Harry nodded.

"Expelliarmus!" Prof. Rasmussen said. 

_Harry was standing inside the Ministry of Magic building. Several duels were going on around him. He watched as various Order members fought Death Eaters. Suddenly Harry snapped his attention to Sirius when he saw a red beam fly at his Godfather. Sirius was caught by surprise as he and the red beam connected. Harry watched as his Godfather was lifted into the air and slowly flew backwards into the veil. "No!" Harry yelled as his Godfather disappeared. He was gone._

"Protego!" Harry forced out when the spell was only a meter away from him. The spell collided with the shield and disappeared. 

"Very good Mr. Potter! This is the last spell I believe. I have heard that you are able to produce a Patronus. Could you please produce one now?" 

"Sure" Harry said as he tried to clear his mind. 

_Flashes of his parents and Voldemort appeared when he closed his eyes. Harry's energy dropped slightly when he heard his mother scream._ He tried to concentrate on a happy thought. 

_"No! Not Harry!" he heard his mother yell._

Visions of his first time on a broom came to his mind. Harry closed his eyes and felt the cool crisp air fly through his hair. The beautiful view of the grounds flashed across his mind. 

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry commanded his wand. Silver wisps of air flew from the tip of the wand and formed in the shape of a great stag. The stag bent his head down and took off at the Dementor. The stag's antler's hit the Dementor and it flew backwards and flew right back into the wardrobe. The doors flew closed from a wave from Prof. Rasmussen's wand. 

She smiled at Harry and congratulated him. "Very well done Mr. Potter! Ten points to Gryffindor for that excellent display of magic." The professor beamed at her student. Harry nodded his head and went back to his friends.

"Nice job show-off" Draco Malfoy sneered at Harry. 

"It was wasn't it?" Harry retorted. Malfoy merely smiled back at his rival.

"What was that Mr. Malfoy? You want to volunteer as my next victim? Very well, front and center!" Prof. Rasmussen said loudly as she wrote something on her parchment. Malfoy shrugged his indifference and walked up to the wardrobe. Prof. Rasmussen waved the doors open and the Dementor exited the piece of wardrobe. 

"Now Mr. Malfoy, could you—" But Malfoy raised his wand and executed a spell before she could finish.

"Expecto Patronum!" he said. The same silver wisps of air appeared from the tip of his wand and molded themselves into the shape of a giant hawk eagle. The beautiful bird flew straight at the Dementor and knocked it back into the wardrobe just as Harry's had done. Prof. Rasmussen once again waved her wand and the doors shut themselves. 

"Perfect! That's quite a beautiful Patronus you have Mr. Malfoy. But please, in the future, wait for your instructions before you start firing of spells. Thank you, ten points to—which is your house?" she asked him. He answered her with a gloating tone of voice. "Ok, ten points to Slytherin! Now who's next?" Draco walked back to his group of Slytherin friends smirking.

"Nice job show-off" Harry said as Malfoy passed by him.

"It was, wasn't it?" Draco retorted. The two boys smiled before sneering at each other.

"Maybe this class wont be so bad after all" Harry thought as he watched Lavender Brown scream in fright when the Dementor was let out of the wardrobe.

***

The four then went to their next class, which was Transfiguration. Prof. McGonagall had the students transfigure feathers into various animals. By the end of the period Harry and Hermione both successfully completed the list that Prof. McGonagall had set for them for the week. She awarded Gryffindor twenty points and grudgingly told them that they could spend the rest of the week doing extra credit assignments.    

The quartet finally arrived at the Great Hall for dinner. Ron had grumbled about how lucky Harry and Hermione were that they were able to transfigure the objects so easily. Five minutes after they left the class, Hermione got fed up with him and started yelling. She reminded him that she and Harry had taken hours out of their summers to study and read over the transfiguration book. That sufficiently shut Ron up. The rest of the trip was taken up with conversation of the new Quidditch season.

"So that's my problem. When I talked to McGonagall about my classes, she told me that I was the new Quidditch Captain." Ron looked slightly hurt at this news. "It's cause I'm the only player that's been on the team longer than a year." That seemed to satisfy his pride.

"So you, me and Ginny have to put together try outs for a new team." Ron moaned loudly. "We need new Beaters and Chasers. Plus we need to try out a Seeker."

"What?!" Ron and Neville exclaimed. 

"You're the best Seeker Hogwarts has had since—forever!" Ron yelled.

Harry flinched at his friend's volume. "Calm down, we have to. Gryffindor now has two seekers; Ginny and me. We have to try out to see who the starter is. Besides, maybe I'd make a fair Chaser or Beater," Harry said as the three entered the Great Hall; Hermione had went back up to Gryffindor Tower to grab a book to read at dinner.

When Harry walked into the giant room, he spotter Ginny laughing with her group of friends. He smiled, "Speaking of," Harry said as he walked over to her and started talking.

Ron looked at his best friend and sister openly flirting. A smile tugged slightly at his lips when he noticed many girls shooting her death glares. He smiled broadly when he noticed the same girls instantly perk up and smile when they noticed him looking at them. "Bloody confusing girls," Ron murmured to Neville as the two walked in. His companion nodded his agreement as the two took their seats in the middle of the large table. Harry and Ginny were about ten seats to their left talking and laughing.

"Neville, is it wrong of me to want to rip out Harry's lungs right now and hang him from them in Filch's office?" Ron asked politely as he glared at his best friend.

Neville choked slightly on his chicken when Ron asked him the question. He looked at his friend surprised and then followed his eyes to where Harry and Ginny sat. He watched as Harry took Ginny's hand in his. She turned red in the face at his actions. Neville rolled his eyes. 

It was common knowledge that Neville had had a crush of Ginny Weasley the previous year. But he had gotten over that over the summer. She had been the only girl besides Hermione that didn't laugh at him for being a clumsy shy boy. But during his fifth year, he had admitted his crush on her. He had been devastated when she told him that she only saw him as a friend. It didn't last long though. When his name was all over the newspapers as one of the group of Hogwarts students that fought and defeated Voldemort and his Death Eaters, he would receive countless owls from girls telling him what a hero he was. 

"Well, seeing as how the two have been shagging for the past week—" Neville started wit a glint in his eye.

"WHAT!" Ron yelled as his head snapped back in Neville's direction. The entire Hall turned and looked at him. He turned red at the attention. "What are you talking about?" he hissed at a laughing Neville.

"Calm down Ron, it's only the second day of school. I'm kidding," he stopped laughing at the death glare that Ron.

"Not funny Longbottom" Ron said. Neville started laughing again. 

"What's so funny Neville?" Hermione asked.

Neville looked at Ron questioningly. He shook his head 'no' and Neville got the message. "Oh just talking about the different ways that Snape could accidentally fall down the stairs." He smiled at Hermione and she gave the two a disapproving look. "Anyway Ron, I think that honestly we wouldn't _want_ Snape to fall down the stairs, but there's nothing we could do to _stop_ him from falling. We just have to _accept_ it," Neville said trying to get answer his friend without Hermione knowing what they were talking about. Ron seemed to understand. He sneaked another glance and Harry and Ginny and shook his had. His took a deep breath and turned to his girlfriend and smiled as he placed a soft kiss on her cheek.

"You know, if I was stupid, I would probably say that you two have really weird conversations. But seeing as I'm not and I get that you don't want me to know whatever you're talking about, I wont say anything," Hermione said from behind her book.

Neville and Ron both started laughing at her comment. Ron put his arm around the girl and placed another kiss on her cheek. "And that's exactly why I keep you around love," he said as he ducked Hermione's arms that flew out to hit him on the head. He and Neville started laughing even harder.

***

            "So how was you're day Gin?" Harry asked as he took a sip from his pumpkin juice. Ever since he saw the girl at the train station, he couldn't get her out of his mind. She wasn't exactly unattractive the previous year, he had just always seen her as Ron's little sister; the girl that could commonly be found in her brother's old clothes. He was used to see her in slightly baggy hand-me-downs. 

            "I guess the money from Fred and George's store has gone to good use," Harry thought to himself as he saw Ginny get up and bend over to pick up the book that her friend Emily had thrown as a joke. The fact that her jeans were very tight on her did make him turn the slightest shade of red.    

            "So Harry, do you like what you see?" Ginny asked as she batted her eyelashes.

            "What??" Harry asked incredulously. 

"My potions essay," she said as she fused her eyebrows together in confusion. "Do you like it? I'm already on Prof. Snape's bad side for being late to class today. I don't think my grade could handle him being mad at me. Besides, if I have a perfect paper, then there's no way he can give me anything other than a perfect mark," she explained with a smile. This only caused Harry to laugh lightly. 

"Oh yeah," Harry said with mock seriousness, "a perfect paper is going to stop Snape from giving you a zero." The two started laughing. They didn't notice the rest of Ginny's friends get up and leave the two alone. 

"True," Ginny said simply. "But I uh—wouldn't mind a couple of study sessions to help me out—in potions of course," Ginny slowly smiled innocently at Harry. 

"Of course," he grinned, "and if we have to stay up all night—"

"Then we'll have to do it. Anything for potions," she smiled.

Harry sent her one of his award winning smiles. "Anything." Ginny wasn't the only girl to catch his smile. Half of the Hufflepuff girls were foaming at the mouth as they gazed lovingly at the Gryffindor. Harry noticed this and smiled at them over Ginny's shoulder. 

This of course did not go unnoticed by Ginny. She looked over her shoulder and saw about twenty girls snap they're heads away from her and Harry's direction. "Something interesting going on over my shoulder Harry?" Ginny asked him.

"Course not, what could be more interesting than you?" Harry said sweetly as he once again took her hand in his and smiled.

"I really need to stop letting him control me with that smile," she thought as she once again blushed. 

***

The rest of dinner had passed pretty much the same way. He and Ginny had flirted the whole meal away. Eventually the two said good-bye and Harry went to join Ron, Hermione and Neville. Ron and Neville kept laughing at him for no apparent reason. Hermione would always just roll her eyes and say she didn't get it either.

Harry was now making his way down the hall to the Headmaster's office. He wanted to talk to the old man about his bank account. He finally reached the gargoyle. "Damn, what's the password?" Harry mumbled to himself as he ran his hand through his hair. 

"Well, that would be '_Never-ending Lemon Drops_' Mr. Potter. And please refrain from using such vulgar language in my presence from now on." Dumbledore's blue eyes sparkled as he smiled and started up the staircase. Harry sneered at the man's back as he followed him.

The two took their seats in their respective chairs. "So, to do what I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore asked as he surveyed the boy over his specs.

Harry looked the man straight in the eye. He had never been able to hold the man's eyes before. There was always something that intimidated him about the blue orbs. They seemed like they were full of something, something that he couldn't quite place his finger on. Harry now knew that they were full of secrets and lies.

"Well, when I went to Gringotts this summer to get money for my vault, I had a lovely surprise waiting for me," Harry said as he stared down the man.

A look of surprise flashed across the old man's eyes. Harry raised an eyebrow. "Yes, well that was a matter that I have been meaning to talk to you about. You see, after Sirius was put into Azkaban, all of his properties and accounts were transferred into my name. A long time ago, Sirius, and many in the order actually, all signed an agreement that stated that if anything were to happen to them, that they're accounts would be transferred into my name. The war against Voldemort was not a cheap one Harry, by lives or money. Since I have control of Sirius' accounts and your are his godson, I am just merely giving you what you are entitled to." 

Harry nodded his head. "Wait, what do you mean giving?" he asked in confusion.

"Well, I have not totally transferred all of Sirius' money to you. I have given you a quarter of it this summer. You will receive another quarter this next summer, and then when you graduate from Hogwarts, you will receive the last half. Consider it a graduation present." Dumbledore laughed at the last part. "Indeed, it will be quite a graduation present. I'm sure not every Hogwarts students will receive millions of galleons as their Hogwarts present." Dumbledore looked as though he were deep in thought. Then he added, "Well, I am not including Mr. Malfoy of course. From what I hear, he will gain complete control of all the Malfoy properties when he graduates as well."

Harry rolled his eyes. "You don't say" he commented sarcastically.

The old Headmaster laughed heartily. "Yes, well I suppose you aren't exactly interested in the affairs of your fellow students." Harry shook his head. "Well, was there anything else Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked him. Once again Harry shook his head. "Very well, I hope I was able to answer all your questions. And if there is nothing else, there is more thing I must give you," Dumbledore said as he sat up from his seat and walked to a cabinet against the far wall in his office. 

Harry watched as he crossed the room and reached into the cabinet. Dumbledore pulled out a silver object. Harry tried to steal a glance at the object. Dumbledore was smiling as he turned around. "Now, now Harry, curiosity killed the car," the old man mock lectured.

Harry was not amused by the old man's attempts at friendliness, too much had passed between the two. He arched his eyebrow at the man. "Good thing Prof. McGonagall isn't here then" he said flatly. Dumbledore stopped in his footsteps for only a second before he recovered himself. Harry smiled. "I see that you are not very skilled in hiding your emotions Headmaster," Harry mocked him.

Dumbledore turned to look at him. The usual sparkle in his eyes was absent. "I suppose that that is one art that I will never be able to master," the Headmaster said gravely. "Emotions are a powerful force Harry. They are not something to hide; to be ashamed of. You of all people should know this. Your mother—"

"My **mother** loved me, and she died for that love. She and my father were heaven sent, and I will never **ever** say differently," Harry said in an almost roaring tone of voice. Dumbledore closed his eyes as if he was disappointed. "But the fact is that she died for her love. Love may be a powerful force and save many lives Headmaster, but it kills countless more. It's hurts more than it helps." Harry's eyes darkened as he spoke.

"We can't make it through life without emotions. Love, hate, pain, joy; they make us who we are. They make us human Harry. You cannot ignore them," Dumbledore explained calmly.

"Apparently Voldemort wasn't in class when you taught that lesson," Harry sneered.

"No, he wasn't. He was busy shedding his humanity and trading it for the soul of a demon," the old man calmly challenged. 

"If you think that I am in anyway trying to follow in that bastards footsteps," Harry said in a quiet commanding voice, "then you are deadly mistaken. I may not be an angel, but I will never, **never**, become what he has. I will not be a murderer. I will not become a monster. And I will never become him," Harry seethed.

"I never insinuated any such thing Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said calmly. "But pain and anger are the keys to that door that opens that dark road. I am not trying to insult you Harry. That is the furthest from my intentions. I just want to warn you." The Headmaster sat back down in his chair and closed his eyes. "I just ask that you be careful. This is not the first time I have had this conversation with one of my students."  

Harry's eyes narrowed in anger at the implication of his words. "He was a boy that had been raised in a far from warm home. He was a very nice boy, very smart and talented; one of the top students in his class. Yes, very nice, but he was filled with so much pain. Of course he never showed this pain. He always had smiles painted on his face in classes and the hallways. But his eyes betrayed him. I had this very same talk with that young man, and now I am having it with his godson," Dumbledore finished.

Harry's head popped up immediately. "Sirius Black was a troubled young man in his day. I saw so much potential in him. But his pain almost destroyed him," Dumbledore said solemnly. "I just do not want you to make the same mistake he almost did. Do not walk that path Harry. For once you take your first step, it is just too hard to take it back." The two held eye contact, neither one willing to break it. "Ask Serverus, his life has been torn apart by his past and those decisions." Dumbledore's eyes pleaded with the young man in front of him.

Harry stood up from his seat. His dark green eyes never left the Headmaster's empty blue orbs. "That was his decision to make, just as this is mine." Harry shook his head. "Shame on me Headmaster, shame on me for thinking that you had faith in me." Pain and anger slowly crept their way into Harry's eyes. "Shame on me for thinking that you believed in me to make the right decision." Harry now glared at the old man before him. "I admit that at times I have been tempted. I've been tempted to become like _him_. Then I wouldn't have to worry about my friends or family, or anyone else. I wouldn't feel fear or pain. I would be a monster just like him, just like the pathetic Dark Lord." Harry's eyes continued to grow darker with every word. 

"But you see, there's a problem with that need. I can't have it. That would mean that I would have to turn my back on everyone. On Hermione, on Ron, and the Weasleys. On Neville, on Hogwarts, on the Order, even you. And I'm just not capable of that. My heart is too strong. Maybe I should have been a bloody Hufflepuff, with their loyalty. Because I could never become like Voldemort." Harry's eyes were now completely black.

"So shame on me for thinking that. But shame on _you_ for forcing me to be in a position where I would even think of that possibility. Shame on you for putting the weight of the world on the shoulders of a boy." Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes. A lone tear slowly made it's way down his wrinkled cheek. 

"But all of that I can forgive, and I have. But shame on you, for not believing in me," Harry spat the last part. He continued his glare on the old man. 

"I believe you said you wanted to give me something," Harry said calmly. His eyes returned back to their emerald green color instantly and his voice lost its ferociousness. 

Dumbledore nodded and laid the silver object on his desk. Harry leaned forward and picked it up. As he lifted it up, a silver chain fell and dangled from his hand. At the bottom of the chain, a silver pendent hung. Harry pulled it closer to his face to inspect. It was a crest. It held the images of a snake wrapped around the antlers and neck of a stag. Next to them a lion proudly stood. The stag and lion each respectively looked to the left and right. The snake looked directly towards Harry from its place around the stag's neck. A saying in Latin was strung across the top of the pendent. Harry looked up at the Headmaster. His face, like Harry's, did not betray the pain that Harry knew he was feeling. 

"He's right," Harry thought, "he'll never be able to mask his face. He'd be a terrible poker player," Harry thought humorously. 

Dumbledore smiled slightly. "It's the eyes Harry, they'll always betray me. And yes, I am a terrible poker player," the Headmaster said lightly. "But the Latin translates into '_Wherever the battle lies, there shall my sword be as well'_. The Potters were never a clan to shy away from a fight." Harry looked at the Headmaster in surprise. "That is the Potter family crest. Your grandfather had one, your father had one, and Sirius had one. If I remember correctly, James gave this to Sirius for Christmas in their second year. Your godfather had gone with James back to Potter Manor for the winter holiday." A flash of pain was evident in Harry's eyes for only a split second before it disappeared. "Like I had said, Sirius did not grow up in a loving home, he was taken in by the Potters as one of their own. Your grandparents were extremely warm people Harry, you would have been proud to call them family, Sirius was. Since that Christmas, I cannot remember a time when I have seen him not wearing this," Dumbledore said as he motioned to the crest. 

"I'm sure that both he and your father would be honored for you to wear it," Dumbledore said as he looked at the young man in front of him. 

Harry carefully took the chain and pulled it over his head. He looked down and smiled at his new possession. A tear slowly cascaded down his cheek. This was a present that his father had given Sirius; an invitation into his family. Harry couldn't help but think of the Weasley's at that moment. They were just like his grandparents. They had taken in a lonely boy that they knew nothing about and loved him as if he were their own child. 

The emotions were too much for Harry. His wiped away his tears and looked up at the Headmaster. "Thank you," he said quietly to the old man. "We may not be on the best of terms, but thank you for this," Harry said.

"Your welcome, though I do not assume that this token has changed anything. Allow me to express my regrets to you Mr. Potter. I am sorry for every wrong that I have done to you. I know that I have lied and mislead you many a times, but you must understand that I thought I was doing what was best. I see now that in all of my planning, I have forgotten that even though you have been marked by Voldemort and that you are ultimately the one that must face him; I have forgotten that you are still just a boy. It is the weakness of an old man's mind. And it is the regret that this is the old man to do all these things. I am not asking for your forgiveness, just your understanding Harry," Dumbledore said. The old man suddenly looked so much older than he ever had.

Harry looked at him. His eyes stared back at Dumbledore's trying to decide what to say. He opened his mouth and then closed it again. "Good night Headmaster," said before he turned around and walked to the door.

Dumbledore eyes closed when he turned around. "I have failed him," he thought as he watched the young man leave.

Harry pulled open the door and stopped. He stared at the dark staircase that would lead him back down to the halls of Hogwarts. "You talked about a Potter Manor Headmaster, where is it?" Harry asked in a monotone voice.

Dumbledore's voice held the pain that he felt as he spoke, "It is destroyed. Your grandparents were attacked and murdered by Voldemort. The house was leveled, I'm sorry." Harry nodded his head slowly. "Good night Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said dejectedly. 

Harry's lone figure walked down the deserted halls alone. Shadows danced along the stonewalls of the castle. The moon seemed to follow his retreating figure, guarding him with its light as though he might disappear in the darkness. 

He walked down the hall and went to his bed. He closed the curtains around his bed and laid back into his pillow. He closed his eyes in hopes of escaping the dark world that surrounded him. 

But soon, his dreams would become nightmares. They too would also become visions and premonitions. 

***

            And there's my latest chapter. I hope you liked it. I know there was a lot of drama in this one and not as many jokes. It just sorta came out as I typed. So tell my what you think. Sorry it took so long, but this is I think my longest chapter yet, so it makes up a lil?? But please review cuz I'm been freakin out tryin to find time to type this up. So go! Review! LOL

This chapter's poll:

1. What did you think of all the drama? Did you like it? Do you like the other chapter's better (with more jokes than serious moments)?

2. What did you think of the conversation between Harry and Dumbledore? Was Harry too hard on him? Was it not enough? (keep in mind that Harry is still just a teenager and can't exactly be objective about his own situation).

3. What are your thoughts on the whole Ginny and Harry thing? Did you like it? Should I drag out the little 'affair' out and have more flirting scenes? Or should I just get straight to the point and then have him dump her?

4. What other class would you like Harry to go to next chapter? I already have a potions lesson more or less planned out, what other class would you like to read about? Maybe dueling? Or maybe an event that happens?

5. How did you like Prof. Rasmussen? You'll find out more about her past soon. It's pretty interesting if you ask me. I had fun making up a little back story for her.

6. Anything else you wanna say or comment on? I love your feedback and I use it to make the story better. (Thanks to Teila for her idea of the necklace!) So yeah! Uh…Review! LOL

I've looked over the vote for the whole sex scene thing. It looks like the majority doesn't really care as long as I'm not writing porn. So I'll try and control my teenage hormones as I write them (Haha). Aaaaand, it seems like no one is really too keen on the whole Hermione/Ron ship, so I'll try to gloss over it as much as possible. Hmm…I think that's about it. And feel free to email me for whatever. And if you want me to email you when I update, just leave your email in the review and tell me so. Alright, later.

gotta B writin

theloudwoods@yahoo.com

^yes, email change! 


	7. Mudblood

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DARK SIDE OF THE MOON 

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CHAPTER SEVEN – Mudblood 

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**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Hey, welcome back to the story. I know it took a long time for the chapter six to get out, so hopefully this one will be quicker, and shorter! For real, my fingers are tired after I type up a chapter. The last ones have all been a good 14 pages on Microsoft Word. So, thanks to ya'll who reviewed the last chapter, much love to you. And I hope you like this one. The last one was kinda on the serious side, so I'm gonna try to make this one a little lighter and more fun. A couple of you have commented on how Ron let go of the Harry/Ginny topic to quickly, so I'll try and see if I can work that in. So yeah, talk to you at the end of the chapter…

**SPECIAL NOTE: **Also, one last note, in the last chapter the last line kinda hinted that Harry would have nightmares. Well………I kinda changed that for this chapter. I was originally gonna have him have a vision of another future event in the story, but I thought that it would be too serious for this chapter. I want this to be as light and fun as possible so as to contrast the last chapter. So I'll save that vision for later. Also, please note that all of Harry's dreams that are in italics are visions of events that are going to happen towards the end of this story (with the exception of the Malfoys' deaths). So probably, I'm guessing that in the close to last chapters, a lot of the scenes will be familiar to you. But don't worry, I'm not just gonna copy and paste, I'll be adding more details and dialogues to the scenes, so they wont be boring. 

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            _Harry opened his eyes to find himself in the middle of a giant bed. The top of the bed was a canopy in a deep crimson color. The wood that made up the posts and frame of the bed was of a dark brown color that complimented the color of the material. _

_The sheets themselves felt as though they were made out of clouds. The satin material felt so smooth against his naked body. A smile crept across his lips as he turned to his left and looked at the beautiful girl lying next to him._

_"Mine," Harry whispered to himself as he gently stroked the girl's silky hair. His body and everything around him seemed to move in reverse order very rapidly. It was as if someone hit the rewind button and the scene was going back to the past. Harry felt drops of sweat reappear all over his body and he moved to his left and the girl sat up and took her place on top of Harry's body. _

_"Harry," the girl moaned sensually as her hips rocked back and forth. Harry's eyes were closed and feelings of ecstasy took over his body. Nothing in his entire life had ever felt as good as what he was experiencing that exact moment. _

_Once again the scene was pushed back into rewind mode as the two nude bodies switched places and Harry was kneeling between the girl's legs. He looked into the girl's eyes and inwardly gasped at what he saw in her eyes. Love. Love was written in her eyes. The phrase that he had heard the other day, "_The eyes are the windows to our souls." _He smiled the biggest and most honest smile he ever had in his life. He saw love in the girl's eyes and it was love for him. _

_"I love you," he whispered as he gently inserted himself in the girl. She took in a breath very quickly and closed her eyes and her head fell back. Harry pulled out of her right away. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," he said as guilt took over him._

_The girl opened her eyes again and looked at him with a smile on her face. "That was far from hurt Harry," she said in a deep voice that was very different from the voice that she used normally. _

_Harry smiled instantly. He changed it to his trademark-charming smile as he looked back at the girl. "This time, don't close your eyes." Harry said as he gently kissed her on her lips. "I want to feel your eyes on me." The two smiled lovingly._

_The scene once again rewound as the two moved from the bed and put their clothes back on. The moved backwards and sat in the two over stuffed chairs in front of the fire. Candles lay scattered all over the room covering almost every empty space._

_The moving stopped. The girl was crying in front of him. Harry watched as her shoulders shook. She looked up at him with tear stained cheeks. "You can't, I wont let you. How do you expect to fight him when you're…you're—" she choked out. _

_Before she could finish the scene started to melt away. The flames in all the candles seemed to intensify and consume the entire room. Waves of fire started circling around Harry. He was soon surrounded by a tornado of fire. He felt his body spin and being thrown against a soft wall. _

_His body started shaking tightly and he heard his name being called from a distance. But the voice was not of the beautiful girl he had just been with; it was too deep, to masculine. _

"Harry! Harry—" he heard the voice call as it got closer and louder.

**-------------------------------------------------------**

"Harry!" Ron shouted even louder and he shook his friend. The red haired boy had been taking turns shaking his friend and laughing. Finally he saw the familiar sight of emerald green orbs open slowly. 

Harry opened his eyes and was greeted by the sight of all of his roommates. They were all looking at Harry with smiles plastered on their faces. He swatted away Ron's arms that continued to shake him. "I'm up!" he yelled in anger. He looked up at their faces and saw both Dean and Seamus drop to the floor and start laughing. He slowly sat up and looked at the two boys in annoyance.

            "What the hell is their problem?" Harry asked as he tried to rub away the sleep from his eyes. He looked at Ron and Neville and noticed that they too were laughing. He was starting to get seriously annoyed. It seemed that everyone in the room was in on a joke that he did not know about. He slammed his body back onto the mattress so that his entire body lay flat against it and pushed the covers off of his body. He lay there wearing only a pair of boxers.

            "What is so funny?" he demanded as he looked at the two red and laughing boys.

Neville's laughing increased and he fell to the floor. Ron was on the edge of joining his roommates and collapsing on the floor in fits of laughter. His face was Weasley red and he was shaking very hard trying to keep his laughter in. Finally though, his body gave in and he fell to the floor and started rolling around like the other three boys.

"What the bloody hell is going on you prats!" Harry yelled venomously. In ordinary circumstances, his tone of voice would have scared the pants off his roommates, but since they were too busy rolling around on the floor to even register him talking, it had no effect. 

Ron's laughing subsided slightly as he hoisted himself on so that he was on all fours and looking up at his friend. He lifted his right arm and pointed at Harry. "It's—" laughter, "it's—" more laughter erupted from his mouth.

**-------------------------------------------------------**

            Ginny was sitting in the sixth year girl's dorm room talking to Hermione as the girl stood in front of her wardrobe of clothes trying to pick out something to wear for the day. 

"So I don't know what's going on. I mean he has been showing a lot of interest in me lately, and it's practically what I've been praying for ever since I was a little girl. But, he's different. I mean, he's been acting like Malfoy only worse lately." The red headed girl shook her head. "But that's not the thing that bothers me. Whenever we're talking, there are always some girls that are trying to flirt with him and I can see him look over my shoulder and smile at them. Smile at them! While he's obviously talking to me!" she said frustrated.

   Hermione looked over her shoulder at her friend. It was true, the entire female population of Hogwarts had been drooling over her friend since their train ride to the castle; and he wasn't the only one they'd been drooling over. She frequently saw or heard girls talk or look over at her boyfriend. It wasn't the first year he had been getting attention, but now that she was involved with him, she was noticing it a lot more. Hermione knew somewhat how Ginny felt. But what seemed off was that Ron would only acknowledge his admirers when he was teasing her. He never seriously paid them any real attention, but Harry was. And that put Ginny in a hard spot.

"Well, why don't you say something to him? I'm sure he's not doing this on purpose. This is Harry we're talking about. Nice, innocent, and chivalrous Harry. Just say something," Hermione said as she flipped through her various different shirts.

"Oh yeah, I'll just march right up to him and say, 'Harry, I want you to stop flirting with other girls.' Yeah, that'll go over well. Especially since I'm not even his girlfriend. Besides, we're talking about a completely different Harry here. I remember Harry from last year and the years before that. I remember how he acted around girls that were obviously hitting on him. He would stutter, become really nervous, and turn all bright red." She heard Hermione laugh. "But he's different, now he's—well he's—charming. It's almost scaring how gorgeous that new smile of his is. I mean I wanted some more salad at dinner and I asked Emily to go down to the end of the table and grab the bowl for me. Of course she said no. But then all Harry does is use that smile of his, say 'please', and she's off sprinting at full speed to the end of the table to grab the bowl for me. Just one word, and you know how Emily is. She wouldn't give me her chair even if my life depended on me sitting down," Ginny finished.

"Okay, well then I don't know what to say Gin." She turned around and held up a shirt to her friend. "Does this match those pants on the bed?" she asked as she held up a shirt. Ginny glanced up and shook her head 'no'. Hermione sighed and turned around to look for another shirt. "Honestly Ginny, I suppose all you can do is deal with it, as much as I hate to say it. Harry's felt the need to become this different person this year, and we have to deal with it. You know how stubborn he is, it'd be impossible to change him. How about this one?" she asked as she held up another shirt. Ginny once again shook her head no.

"Oh well, I suppose my little dream of being with him will just have to stay a dream. Besides, I don't need to be his girlfriend to have some fun with him," Ginny said as she got off of Hermione's bed and pulled out a shirt and handed it to her friend.

Hermione looked at her friend in shock. "Ginny!" she shouted in surprise. "You better not be talking about what I think you're talking about!" she lectured. 

Ginny shrugged her shoulders. "Sex?" she giggled mischievously. "I don't know. But either way, it's not like it's going to be my first time. I told you about Seamus," Ginny said as she looked at the small library that Hermione had set up in the room.

"Yes you have, and I believe that I told you even then that it was a stupid thing to do" Hermione raved. "And he was your boyfriend!" she shrieked. It was known that Ginny and Seamus had spent the summer owling and visiting each other. Ron had not been happy that his sister was owling a boy. Ginny barely had the courage to tell him that she had lost her virginity. Hermione was the only other person that knew. "I hope you aren't seriously thinking of that Ginny. Do I need to remind you what you went through when you and Seamus broke up?" she asked her friend.

Ginny frowned at the girl. "It was just a thought. Besides, I'm different this year, I'm more grown up now," Ginny defended herself.

"Trust me, I don't think either of us will ever be grown up enough to do what you just said," Hermione said as she walked into the sixth year girl's bathroom that was right next to the dorm room. A minute later Hermione appeared on the outside of the door wearing the day's clothes. "So, how do I look?" she asked.

Ginny looked at her friend and frowned. Hermione looked back down at herself. "Is it that bad?" she asked.

Ginny shook her head. "No it's not that. It's just—since when did you become so interested in how you looked?" Ginny asked. Ever since Ginny knew her, she had never known Hermione to be concerned over her appearance.

"Since I started dating your brother," Hermione answered. Ginny raised her eyebrows at the girl. "I know I've given you the speech on how you shouldn't change yourself for a boy, but I want to. It makes me feel better about myself when he smiles at me when he sees me. Besides, if he's too busy looking at me, he wont notice all the other girls drooling over him." Hermione laughed as she saw Ginny's face scrunch up in disgust.

"Eww, that's my brother! And I don't think you really need to dress up for my brother. He liked you before your change, and he'll like you even if you decide to go back to your frizzy hair days." Ginny laughed and ducked as Hermione threw a pillow at her head. "Besides, my brother is too oblivious to everything to notice the crowds of girls that drool over him," Ginny smiled innocently.

Hermione smiled at her. "Well, maybe I like other boys than just him smiling at what they see," Hermione said devilishly.

Ginny's mouth hung open at the girl's words. "Hermione!" she shrieked as she threw the pillow back at the girl. "You better be messing around. My brother may be a jerk, but that doesn't mean I wont hex you into next week if you hurt him" she scolded her friend. Hermione merely smiled innocently and played with her hair. Ginny rolled her eyes at the girl's antics. "Merlin, the old Hermione was so much easier to get along with," Ginny said as she smiled at her friend.

Hermione laughed lightly. "I guess Harry isn't the only one that's changed," she said as she smiled back at Ginny. The two girls laughed good-naturedly. Hermione picked up her book bag and slung it over her shoulder. "The old Hermione may have been easier to get along with, but you have to admit she wasn't as fun." Ginny smiled and nodded her head. 

"I bet the boys aren't having as much fun as we are," Ginny said as she and Hermione walked out of the room. Hermione laughed and Ginny picked up her book bag and carried the strap in her hand.

**-------------------------------------------------------**

"If you don't tell me what's going on I'm going to hex you all into oblivion!" Harry yelled at the four laughing boys. To his dismay, his threat did not effect any of the boys' actions. Harry laid back down on his back. The scene had been going on for quite awhile and Harry was getting seriously irritated with his roommates.

Finally Ron stopped laughing and sat on the floor facing Harry's bed. He was leaning on his hands that he positioned behind him and had his feet flat on the floor with his knees bent as he faced Harry. His eyes focused on Harry's face and if the ever strayed away, he was start laughing again lightly.

"Sorry mate, it's just not everyday that you wake all of us with a—um—happy greeting," Ron said as the boys started to laugh again.

Harry looked at his friend from his position on his back with utter confusion. "What are you talking about Ron?" he asked. The boys laughed even harder.

Ron laughed at his friend and shook his head. Perhaps he should try a different approach. "So, did you have any nice dreams last night Harry?" he asked. The boys laughed even harder after Ron asked his question.

"Dreams? No, why?" Harry asked in confusion. The boy's laughter continued. Why was his friend acting so weird? True it _was_ Ron; he was quite infamous to Harry for his quirky behavior. 

Ron sighed to himself and chuckled, "Oh Merlin." He thought and tried yet another approach. "Oi, 'Arry, have you ever been camping?" he asked as he looked at his friend. This caused the boys' laughter in intensify ten fold. 

"Camping?" Harry asked annoyed. "What in the name of Merlin's beard are you babbling on about?  I'm not greeting you special this morning, I didn't have any nice dreams last night, and the only time I've been camping was with you at the Quidditch Cup Finals. So what the hell are you talking about!" he yelled at the red head. The boys' laughter continued as Harry glared from each one of them to Ron and then back again.

Ron laughed and shook his head. "And he's the one that says I'm oblivious," Ron thought to himself. 

"Alright, alright, sorry Harry. It's just that—well, you might want to look down to your feet," Ron explained solemnly. All the boys' laughter quieted down considerably and they all turned to see what Harry's reaction would be.

Harry looked at his friend in confusion. Why would Ron want him to look down towards his feet? Harry just shrugged and decided to humor his friend. When he looked down, his eyes bulged out of his sockets and his face instantly turned bright red.

"BLOODY HELL!" he yelled. All four boys were on the floor rolling around as Harry stared in shock at what was before him. But before he could say anything else, he heard a scream come from the door. 

**-------------------------------------------------------**

Draco Malfoy sat on his bed in the Slytherin sixth year boy's dormitory. Thoughts filled his head. It was only the second day of school and Harry Bloody Potter was already making his life terrible. 

First it started with his visit to Diagon Alley. Potter had humiliated him without his even knowing. Draco had **talked** to him as thought they were friends. He even complemented Harry on his taste in women. He had been nice to the damned Boy-Who-Lived. 

And then at the station, Harry had thrown it right back in his face. It had all been a plan. "He planned it all just to make me look like a fool in front of everyone," he thought in anger. "And he actually mentioned father. That bastard!" Draco yelled out loud. Goyle had been looking for something in his trunk when he heard Draco yell. He looked up alarmed at the blonde Slytherin. Draco glared over at the idiot in front of him. "Get out," he hissed. Goyle stood up and ran out of the room. 

Then there was that comment about him and other boys the other day in front of the castle. At this Draco smiled in spite of himself. "I guess he hasn't talked to the female population of Slytherin," Draco thought to himself as he picked up a pair of Pansy's panties. The girl had forgotten them from the previous night. She had been so sad over the fact that her wand was broken that Draco decided he would make it up to her. 

"I guess I'm just a softy at heart," Draco mumbled to himself as he twirled the girl's under with his finger as he walked out of the room. "Pansy!" he yelled. "You forgot your underwear in my room again last night!" Draco smiled at the looks on the other students' faces as he walked through the common room. Pansy looked up from her group of friends and stared at him as though he just slapped her. "I guess you couldn't think straight after a night full of you screaming 'Oh Draco, you have such a big—'" but he stopped when Pansy screamed. 

The girl ran up to Draco, grabbed her underwear that he had been waving around the common room, and ran right back into her dorm room. The whole common room burst into fits of laughter.

**-------------------------------------------------------**

Ginny and Hermione were sitting down in the common room waiting for the boys to come down so they could all walk down to breakfast. Hermione was pacing back and forth. "What is taking them so long? Everyone is probably down there already, and if we don't hurry up we'll miss breakfast **and** be late to class," Hermione complained.

            ""Knowing my brother and Harry, they're probably just getting up," Ginny said as she rolled her eyes.

            "Oh," Hermione said, "maybe I should go up and wake them. I refuse to be late today. Harry and I have Potions as our first class, and the last thing we need is to start the year off with a detention from Prof. Snape," Hermione said as she started towards the stairs that lead to the male dorms.

Ginny jumped up from her seat and pulled Hermione back. "Oh no you don't, I know for a fact that my brother only sleeps in his underwear and I don't want to be waiting down here while you're up there snogging him," Ginny said as she started walking up the stairs. "**I'll** go wake them up."

She walked up the stairs and made her way towards the sixth year boys' dorm room. She smiled and laughed to herself as she remembered the night that she discovered her brother's sleeping attire. It was only a couple of months back. Fred and George had been inventing some new products in their room when they had accidentally set fire to their beds. They had screamed 'Fire!' and ran out of the house screaming it over and over. It had been during the middle of the night, so everyone had jumped straight out of their bed and ran outside. Ron had come running out of his room clad only in a pair of boxers. The twins teased him incessantly over his appearance. 

As Ginny neared the room she heard roars of laughter come from the other side of the door. "What is going on?" she wondered as she knocked on the door. No one answered her, so she knocked again. She sighed in annoyance. "They probably can't hear over their own laughter," she thought to herself. "I hope their dressed, well maybe not Harry," she mumbled and smiled as she turned the knob and opened the door

The sight of Dean, Seamus, Neville, and Ron all rolling around on the floor greeted her. The she heard Harry yell out. She turned her head and her eyes widened at the sight in front of her. Harry Potter was lying on his bed wearing only a pair of boxers. Even though his muscular body was exposed, that was not what she was shocked by. She screamed when she noticed that Harry was "excited" and making a rather large tent out of his underwear. 

When Harry heard her scream he turned at looked at the girl. "Get out!" he yelled as he quickly sat up and tried to hide the obvious large bulge that his roommates had been laughing about. 

Ginny jumped up at his shout and quickly ran out of the room. Harry's face was way beyond red as he closed his eyes. "This is not going to be a very good day," he thought to himself. He turned and glared at his best friend that was laughing at him from the floor. "Why didn't you tell me?" Harry roared.

**-------------------------------------------------------**

The entire population of the Great Hall jumped up when they heard the doors slam open as Harry entered. 

Harry entered the Hall alone and was soon followed by Neville, Ron, Seamus, and Dean who were all limping. Harry was in a very bad mood and had not taken kindly to his roommates' sense of humor. Finally after the four limping boys, Hermione and a very red Ginny walked in and sat down at the end of the Gryffindor Table.

All the other houses whispered amongst themselves as Harry walked over to his seat. Harry glared from his spot at the table and the entire hall went silent, except for the whispers that came from the Slytherin Table. Draco Malfoy sat in his seat looking at Harry in confusion. Harry sneered at the boy and he received the same gesture in return. 

"Come now Harry, eat something. There's no use in starving yourself over what happened—" but she was silenced by a kick from Ginny under the table. Harry glared at his friend and continued picking at his food with his fork. Fifteen minutes passed by before Hermione sighed and picked up her book bag. "Let's go Harry, we have five minutes to get down to the dungeons, and I for one do not wish to receive a detention on my first day of Potions." Harry sighed and picked up his bag as well. He slung it across his chest and the two walked out.

"Look on the bright side mate, at least it wasn't a little tent," Ron yelled from his seat. Harry merely stuck his middle finger up at his friend and continued walking. Once the Great Hall doors shut, Ron, Neville, Seamus, Dean, and Ginny burst out into fits of laughter. 

Neville turned to the girl and smiled devilishly. "Well, congratulations Ginny. I'm sure you're happy to know that Harry has a big—"

"LONGBOTTOM!" Ron roared.

**-------------------------------------------------------**

            Hermione and Harry quietly made their way down to the dungeons. Hermione tried to think of something to say as they walked, she was not very comfortable with silence. She had been sitting on one of the chairs in the common room when she heard Ginny scream and come running down the stairs. After a couple of minutes of Ginny blushing and laughing, she finally calmed down and told Hermione what she saw. 

"Poor Harry," she had thought when she had heard the story. Unlike Ginny and the other boys, Hermione prided herself in having a certain level of maturity. She had felt sorry for her friend. "But maybe this is just what he needs to get him to stop acting like the arrogant arse that's he's been," she thought as they continued their way to the Potions room.

Harry walked in humiliation. Not only had his roommates had a good laugh at his expense, but also Ginny, the girl who he had been flirting with shamelessly, had walked in on him in at the worst possible time. It had been mortifying.

What would she think of him now? She probably just saw him as some horny teenager that had perverted dreams at night. She had screamed in fright when she saw him. And then Hermione knew about it. His friend, Hermione knew about it. And she just happened to be the girl that he had to walk to the dungeons with alone. She probably thought he was some pathetic loser. 

"Get a hold of yourself Potter," a voice in his head scolded. "This is what the old you would be doing. He would be wallowing in his own self-pity. But not anymore, you've changed. No more taking crap from people." A scowl formed on his lips as he continued walking. 

"Hey Potter," Daniel Radmus called out, "walking your mudblood of a girlfriend to class?" this aroused only a few nervous laughs from the other Slytherins. The hallway contained only the group of Slytherins and Harry and Hermione. Daniel's fellow Slytherins looked back and forth from Harry to the other boy. Apparently he had missed Harry's grand entrance to breakfast. The other students had obviously been witness to Harry's foul temper at both the morning meal and at the Platform 9¾ with Draco Malfoy. 

Harry whirled around and before the Slytherin sixth year knew it, he was being forcefully shoved into a wall with the front of his robes bunched up in Harry's fists. He looked on in shock at the pair of flaming green eyes stared daggers at him. He swallowed hard and his eyes shot to the group of Slytherins for support. 

In true Slytherin fashion they all took a step back away from the confrontation. Hermione looked at the group and frowned disapprovingly. Their reaction to the situation did not surprise her. Since coming to Hogwarts, Hermione learned two things about Slytherins: a Slytherin's actions were only performed to further himself and they were all extremely proud. She rolled her eyes at the small group. They would rather see their friend get extremely hurt than insult his pride by aiding him. 

Harry sneered at the slightly shaking boy in front of him. He knew that the boy was scared. Even though his face remained composed, he could see the fear in his eyes. Harry pulled the boy back slightly from the wall and then slammed him into it once again with a large amount of force. The boy coughed from the impact and winced slightly. Harry narrowed his eyes even more. He knew the boy could take the pain, no doubt he had been trained to hide his pain by his father. 

"Let me give you a little piece of advice Radmus, today is not the day to cross me. So unless you want to find yourself in the Hospital Wing for the next week or so, leave me and my friend alone." Harry promptly removed his hands from Daniel's robes and watched as the boy fall back down to the floor. 

Radmus stumbled slightly but managed to stay on his feet. He turned and sneered at Harry and Hermione's retreating forms. "Bloody Potter, thinks he's some kind of king."

Harry and Hermione entered the Potions classroom and took their seats on the right side towards the back. Snape's desk was stationed at the front left corner of the room and the two wanted to be as far away from the Potions Master as possible. Past experiences had taught them of his hatred for anyone outside of his own house, and that went double for Harry.

"In your seats now!" Snape snapped at his class as he walked through the door. The remaining students who had been hanging around the door immediately sat down in the nearest seat. Harry looked around the room curiously. To no surprise to him, a Slytherin majority occupied the room. Harry and Hermione were the only Gryffindors that had taken potions. There was three Ravenclaws and Susan Bones was the lone Hufflepuff. 

The Slytherins sat perfectly in their seats facing the Professor and throwing a sneer every once in awhile to a non-Slytherin student. Draco Malfoy sat in the first row of tables with Blaise Zabini. 

"You should all consider yourselves extremely privileged. I have agreed to take all of you, some more forced than others, he said as he glared at Harry, as students for my Sixth Year NEWTS Potions Class." Snape had begun pacing around the room in between the different tables. Every time Snape was facing Harry's general direction, he would sneer at his student. 

"Today as your first assignment, you will be brewing the Intimo Potion. Can anyone tell me what this potion does?" Snape asked as his eyes swept over the room. He stopped when he reached Harry and smiled evilly. "Ah yes, our resident celebrity, Mr. Potter. Please, I know that you will not be able to answer such a simple question, but I will give you the benefit of a doubt. So please, enlighten us," Snape pompously said as he motioned the entire class.

Hermione looked over at her friend nervously. She had been hoping that Snape wouldn't do this. It was not a secret that Harry wasn't the best potions student, and Snape had known this after their first week at the castle. 

Harry smiled innocently up at his Potions Master. "Well, it depends Professor," Harry answered. "There are two different types of the Intimo Potion in existence. The first is the male type. This potion, when taken by a male, will act as a cousin to the Veritaserum Potion. When the subject is asked a question, the subject will reply with either the truthful answer or a secret. The subject cannot answer in any other way. The sister potion works in the same way, only with females. The Intimo Potion was the groundwork for our present day truth potion. It was believed back then that the person would rather tell the truth than divulge a secret of their own," Harry said smugly to the Potions Master. "If you want to know what happens to a male who takes the female potion or vise versa, I would be happy to _enlighten_ you Professor," Harry said as he showed his charming smile. 

Snape scowled at his student. "Since when did the little bastard become the next Granger?" the professor wondered to himself. He shook his head 'no' and turned around facing the rest of the class. "Nice guess work Potter," he sneered. Harry only smiled back victoriously.

"Now that you know what the potion does, you will make it. We will be testing out the potions at the end of the class so pray to your mothers that you do not mess up. The supplies you will need are at the front of the room. Get to work!" Snape barked at his students. One person from each table walked to the front of the room to gather the needed supplies and ingredients. 

Harry strutted to the front of the room and gathered the ingredients that were listed on the board. He could see Pansy Parkinson out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and noticed the broad smile that played across her lips. His eyes trailed lower at her crossed legs that were constantly crossing and uncrossing themselves giving Harry a nice view of her underwear. Harry looked back up at her eyes and saw her raise an eyebrow at him suggestively. Harry flashed his smile at her and winked as he turned and headed back to his and Hermione's table.

Pansy watched the retreating Gryffindor. "Merlin bless his mother for giving him life," she mused to herself. She heard a coughing noise behind her and turned to see her former boyfriend Draco Malfoy glaring at her. The two had shared many a nights in Draco's bed. She smiled at him, he had broken things off with her, but she would never pass up the chance to spend another night with him. "You rang?" she asked sweetly. 

"What do you think your doing drooling over Potter? He's a Gryffindor. Roll your tongue back up and remember your loyalties Parkinson. Slytherins do _not_ socialize with Gryffindors," he snapped at the girl. Just because she stopped lying in his bed didn't mean that he wanted her lying in Harry's. 

Pansy frowned at the boy, but then slowly morphed her frown into a smile. "Jealous Draco?" she toyed with the boy. She was suddenly ecstatic, Draco Malfoy was jealous of another boy.

Draco sneered at the girl. "I have no reason to be jealous of Potter," he spat out.

Pansy continued smiling. "Well from my seat, there's a whole lot that you could be jealous of," she said as she glanced back at Harry. She caught his eye again and gently moved her lips to form a kiss for him. He smiled back at her and winked again before turning back to his work. "And there's another reason for you Draco."

Draco glared at the girl. True, he didn't like her. She was only good for the occasional shag when his lower half needed one, but other than that he felt no attachment to her. Even though that was true, he still didn't want Perfect Potter to have her.

Harry carried the supplies over to his and Hermione's table. He set them down and Hermione began arranging them by their cauldron. "Harry, what do you think you were doing over there?" Hermione asked in a very McGonagall voice as she was arranging the vials in the order that was written on the board. 

Harry looked over at his friend and immediately knew what she was asking. She knew about him and Ginny, and now she just witnessed him flirting with another girl; a Slytherin no less. "Just having a little fun Hermione, not that it's any of your business" he shot back at her.

Hermione stopped and turned to look at her friend. Harry subconsciously moved back slightly when he saw the reprimanding look on his friends face. He immediately regretted his last words, but right away mentally refused to apologize. "Harry James Potter, I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but you will not talk to me in that manner," she lectured quietly so as not to get in trouble with Snape. "How dare you lead Ginny on the way you are and then turn around and flirt with Pansy Parkinson, the whore of Slytherin." She glared at Harry.

Harry was slightly taken aback by her words. He always knew his friend to be opinionated, and generally right, but at the moment, he did not agree with her. "First off Hermione, what I do is none of your business. The second, unless you haven't noticed, there isn't a ring on Ginny's finger, so I have the freedom to do whatever the hell I want. And the third, Ginny's a big girl. If she has a problem with it, then she can say something for herself," Harry hissed back. 

Hermione looked surprised by his words. Harry had never spoken to her that way before.

Harry saw her reaction and immediately felt guilty. He knew he friend wasn't trying to start a fight; she was just trying to protect her friend. "Look, I'm sorry 'Mione. I didn't mean to snap at you," Harry smiled gently at his friend. Hermione smiled in return and was about to say something when Harry cut her off. "But that doesn't mean that I'm apologizing for my words," Harry continued. "I meant what I said. I'm sorry if you disagree, but like I said, it's between me and Ginny. But she's really lucky to have a friend that cares about her as much as you do 'Mione." 

Hermione didn't know what to say to that. "Maybe I should tell Ginny all this. She deserves to know. And like he said, if she has a problem, she should tell him." With that thought, Hermione smiled and nodded to her friend.

Harry smiled, thankful that Hermione wasn't lecturing him. He cast a glance back at Pansy and winked. His smile grew wider when he saw the look on Draco's face as he did. Harry turned back to Hermione. "And on top of it, it's pissing Malfoy off." Hermione glanced and noticed the sneer on Draco's face. She merely laughed to herself and continued with the work. 

The two worked in silence for the next couple of minutes. Hermione began adding the first of the ingredients and stirring them together. Harry set to work on crushing the beetle legs into a fine powder. Hermione looked over at his work. "That's fine Harry, just add it in slowly and then stir it in a counter clockwise direction."

Harry followed her directions and began stirring the contents in the cauldron. Hermione looked up and quickly grabbed the stirring spoon away from Harry with a look of fright in her eyes. "Harry, what do you think you were doing?" she asked as she looked at him incredulously.

Harry was shocked by his friend's actions. He had done what she said. He added in the beetle legs and then stirred it in the direction she told him to. "What are you talking about? I did exactly what you said. You said to add and stir and I did. What are you flipping out about?" he asked.

"Harry, after you combine beetle legs with any sort of reptile vile, you have to mix them slowly. If you do it too fast, their magical properties will collide too fast and it'll blow up, I would have thought you knew that!" she said as thought it was common knowledge. 

"What makes you think I would know that, look who you're talking to. I'm the king of potion explosions." Harry said as though it was common knowledge.

"Well that's what I used to think, then you come in here and answer Snape's question and even more, I thought maybe you magic'd yourself to become a potions expert." Hermione explained as she continued to stir.

Harry looked at her as if she were mad. "Yeah, if you find a spell that can do that, sign me up for two," Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm still the explosion master with potions, I just read the potions book over the summer. I'll memorize all the potion ingredients you want, just don't ask me to make one for you." Harry and Hermione both laughed quietly. "I'll always be terrible at this," Harry added.

Draco Malfoy had been listening in on their conversation the entire time. He turned around to look at the two Gryffindors with a sneer on his face. The Slytherin was only two tables away. "Well, it seems as though hell just froze over. Potter, did you actually just admit to not being perfect at something?" 

Harry looked over at Draco and frowned as though he were thinking. He sat there looking at his lap and counting on his fingers in deep concentration. "No, I definitely don't remember ever inviting you into this conversation Wanker Boy," Harry replied with a charming smile. 

"How witty Potter. Finally learned how to talk out of your mouth instead of your ass," Draco added.

Harry was about to get out of his seat when Hermione pulled him back down into his chair. He shot her a look that said 'back off' and she returned it with a 'this is not the time' look. Harry sneered at Malfoy one last time before he returned to his work.

Ten more minutes went by and the two had succeeded in mixing all of the ingredients together. "Harry could you please get rid of the scorpion tales? Make sure you put them back into their container right away. They've been exposed to the air for too long. If they get just a little wet, they'll explode." Harry nodded at his friend. 

He began walking towards the container in the front that Snape always had that would make dangerous leftover ingredients disappear when he heard part of a conversation that he never should have. 

"Ok, now you can add the scorpion tales into the potion. But do it fast, they've almost been out for too long," Draco told Blaise as he continued reading his potions book. The red headed Slytherin girl nodded her head and was about to add the tails in when she knocked over her book and bent down to pick it.

Harry looked at the two as he walked by them. Draco was busy reading his book and Blaise was busy under the table. "I shouldn't, it would make their potion explode," Harry thought as he 'accidentally' dropped a few scorpion tails into their pile. Harry walked to the pot and deposited the rest of the tails with a grin.

"Ok, got it," Blaise said as she placed her book into her bag. "Alright, scorpion tails in," she said as she dumped the tails into the liquid potion. 

BOOM! The cauldron exploded and sprayed the deep blue liquid in all directions. All the students in a ten-foot radius got hit with the potion. Luckily, Harry had accidentally knocked down a jar, so he had been behind a workbench when the cauldron exploded. 

"BLOODY HELL ZABINI!" Draco yelled. His once white blonde hair was now a royal blue color as was the rest of his face and body. 

Harry was in the front corner bent over laughing as he saw the scene in front of him.

"Mr. Malfoy!" Snape boomed as he stomped over to the Slytherin boy. "What is the meaning of this?" Draco looked up at the professor in confusion. 

"I don't know professor. We made the potion just like the instructions said to. All we had left was the scorpion tales. I chopped them up and told Zabini to add them in. They had been out in the air for awhile, but it wasn't long enough for them to—" but Draco cut off when he noticed Harry laughing in the corner.

"Mr. Malfoy, I do not appreciate your diverting your attention from me while I'm—" 

Draco stared at Harry in thought. When Harry had walked by, Blaise was bending over to grab her book and he had been immersed into his own potions book. There had been a definite small window of time when neither of the two Slytherins were paying attention to their potion.

"POTTER!" Malfoy yelled. 

As soon as Harry heard Draco yell his name, he immediately stopped laughing and stood up straight with a neutral expression on his face.

"Can I help you Malfoy? Maybe explain to you why your potion exploded?" Harry asked innocently.

"What is the meaning of this Mr. Malfoy, and what does _he_" Snape spit out the word in disgust, "have to do with this?"

"He walked in front of our table right before Blaise added in the scorpion tails," Draco sneered at Harry. "Blaise dropped her book under the table and I was reading my book. When he was passing by our table neither of us were paying attention to our potion," Draco explained.

"Well there's your problem Draco," Harry continued his innocent voice. "If there's one thing that I've learned from this excellent educator, it's that you should never leave your cauldron unattended," Harry said with a smile. "Isn't that right professor?" Harry asked Snape.

Snape rolled his eyes and glared at his student. "Oh shut up Potter," he sneered. "As much as I would like to punish the boy Mr. Malfoy, you did leave your cauldron unattended. Just clean up the mess right away," Snape said as he flicked and swished his wand. Immediately Draco and Blaise were returned to their normal state. He walked away and began performing the same spell on the other students purposefully leaving the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw for last. 

Draco glared at Harry. Harry only grinned at Draco and winked. "Really Malfoy, you should pay more attention to your studies," he said as he passed by the Slytherin.

Hermione glared at her friend. She had seen him drop some of their scorpion tales into Draco and Blaise's potion ingredients. "Harry, that was—"

Draco snapped his head at the girl and barked out, "Stay out of this Mudblood!"

"Don't call her that Ferret Boy," Harry sneered back

"Oh what are you going to do Scar Face?" Draco hissed back, "Flirt me to death?"

At that moment Harry dove across the aisle and slammed Draco onto the floor. The two rolled around the ground fighting each other. As Harry had surprised Draco, he managed to stay on top and quickly brought his fist down upon the blonde's pale face. The once pale milky skin was now stained with blood. "Get off me!" Draco yelled and successfully exchanged positions with Harry. 

Now Draco was on top and punching Harry in his face. On the third punch, Draco heard a soft crack as his fist connected with Harry's nose. Harry let out a quiet "Oww," right before he brought his knee up and connected it with Draco's groin. 

A low moan escaped Draco's lips as his fists stopped their attack long enough for Harry to regain the upper hand. He was once again on top of Draco and resumed his attack on the boy's face. After another two punches, Harry heard an identical crack when his fist met the Slytherin's nose.

Snape had been busy trying to calm down a crying Ravenclaw when he heard Draco yell. He was on the verge of performing the 'Avada Kedavra' curse. He turned to the direction that he heard the cry from. What he saw surprised him in an unsurprising way. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were at the moment rolling around on the ground like first years fighting each other. 

The scene did not surprise him. It was an unwritten school rule that the two despised each other. But what surprised him was that they had chosen his class to display their discontent for the other.

"Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Potter, stop this at once!" Snape boomed from his spot across the room. If the two boys heard him, they evidently chose to ignore him. "Potter, remove yourself from Mr. Malfoy at once!" he yelled. Still nothing changed. "That's it" he muttered to himself as he walked up to the two and pointed his wand. 

"_Consisto!_" he yelled. Immediately both boys froze and hovered about the ground a few inches. 

"Class is over, return all your supplies and place your potion a vial and place them on my desks" Snape hissed. "NOW!" he yelled.  

The students in the class rushed around as fast as they could trying to finish their potions and return their supplies. In less the three minutes, all the potions were on Snape's desk and the last Slytherin was closing the dungeon door behind him.

"Now, should I even ask for an explanation? Or should I go straight to the detentions?" Snape said as he glared at the two boys. 

"Mr. Potter, please explain why you attacked Mr. Malfoy in the _middle of my Potions Class!_" Snape barked at Harry. Harry stared at his Potions Master in anger. 

Harry always knew that Snape was a biased git, but this was so far beyond unfair. "Why did _I_ attack _him_?" Harry asked in anger. "Why did I attack him? Let me tell you why. I hit _him_ because _he_ called Hermione a Mudblood!" Harry yelled. 

Snape looked at him as if he were a little child. "Really, I find it hard to believe that Mr. Malfoy would call another student such a foul name," Snape said as though it were an outrageous accusation. 

"You've got to be kidding me," Harry snarled.

Malfoy sneered at Harry from behind Snape's back. Harry returned the action. "Honestly Potter, I would never do such a thing. That is a ludicrous accusation," Draco said with a smile tugging slightly on his lips.

Harry narrowed his eyes at the blonde. He looked at Snape and the greasy haired man was leveling Harry with a glare. "Silly me, here I was honestly thinking that you would believe me Professor. I guess I shouldn't expect much from a Death Eater and his batboy," Harry sneered.

For a moment everyone in the room froze in their spot. Draco's eyes widened slightly. The boy couldn't believe what he had just heard. Harry Potter, the Golden Boy of Gryffindor actually verbally attacked a Professor.

Serverus stood still where he had been standing. He stared at the raven-haired young man in front of him. Memories from his past of an identical young man came to his mind. He remembered the many times James Potter mocked him and called him names. His nostrils flared in anger as he stared at the sixth year before him.

"To the Headmaster's office Potter," Snape barked out, "NOW!" Snape's robes were flying everywhere as he walked out of the potions chamber. "You too Mr. Malfoy."

Draco was still shocked by what had just happened, even though his appearance didn't show it. He looked over at Harry and let the boy's words sink in. "_…a Death Eater and his batboy…"_ Draco's eyes narrowed in pure hatred as he stared at the boy. He had just insulted Draco in the worst way possible.

As Harry picked up his bag and was about to walk out of the room he felt a weight fall on his back. Harry soon found himself on the floor with hits on his back. "Ahh!" he cried out.

Harry swung his right arm behind him and successfully punched his attacker. Harry felt the weight roll off of him. He quickly turned around and punched Malfoy in the face. The action was returned and the two once again found themselves suspended in mid air. 

"I expect this from the first years Mr. Malfoy, not from you," Snape spat out. 

Harry sneered at the Professor. "What about me Professor?" Harry asked in mock politeness. 

Snape rolled his eyes at the Gryffindor's antics. "Potter you walk in front of me. Mr. Malfoy, you follow behind. As I cannot trust you to be within a meter of each other without fighting, I must separate you. Now march!" he yelled at Harry. 

The three walked down the hall and received many strange and curious looks from passing students. The Ravenclaws tried to hide their stares as they walked past the group. Hufflepuffs stared open eyed and quickly shot down another hallway to clear the way for Snape. Gryffindors stared openly at the group as the walked down the hall. Dean Thomas actually tripped over his own foot because all his attention was focused on Harry, Draco, and Snape. As Slytherins passed by, they all smirked at Harry and Draco. They mocked Harry and congratulated Draco all with the same look. "Probably because it would take too many brain cells to come up with a different expression," Harry supposed.

They finally reached the hideous gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office. As Harry stepped onto the revolving staircase, he suddenly felt nervous. He had visited Dumbledore's office many times before, but most of them weren't because he was in trouble. That is to say, school related trouble, not Voldemort trouble. 

He had attacked Draco and Snape, not a smart move, but it had just come out. He could explain attacking Draco easily. He called Hermione a Mudblood and Harry just couldn't stand it anymore. But Snape, that was a different story. He didn't know why he said what he did. Before, Harry would only ever think those things; never actually say them. And to top it off, he said it to Snape's face. 

Slowly Draco and he took the seats in front of Dumbledore's desk. Snape stood behind the two chairs in the middle. Dumbledore surveyed both Draco and Harry before addressing Snape. Both boys held a similar expression of indifference. 

"So tell me Serverus, what happened?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

"During my potions class today, Mr. Potter here chose to sabotage Mr. Malfoy's potion and start a fist fight in the middle of the class. I called for the two to stop and even yelled, but I was forced to stop the two magically. Mr. Potter claimed that Mr. Malfoy teased another student. When I said that I didn't think that Draco would do such a thing, Mr. Potter deliberately called Draco and myself Death Eaters." Snape spat the last part out and glared at the back of Harry's head.

Dumbledore's eyes lost their sparkle as Snape told his story of what happened. He looked at Draco. "Mr. Malfoy, is this correct?"

Draco turned and glared at Harry. Harry continued looking straight ahead. Draco looked back at Dumbledore. "Well, he said batboy, but yes. That was about what happened," Draco replied. 

Dumbledore sighed and then turned to face Harry. The old man was dreading the day that Harry would say something to his Potions Master. He knew the two didn't get along, and with Harry's new attitude, he knew the two would be in his office soon.

"Harry, did you do and say all these things?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry continued to stare ahead before he turned his gaze and looked at the Headmaster. "I still say that I didn't mess up anybody's potion," Harry stated, "they never saw me do anything, I was just standing there and Malfoy started yelling about how I destroyed it even though he was the one that wasn't paying attention to his own potion," Harry said. 

At that point both Snape and Malfoy scowled. Dumbledore smiled inwardly at their identical reactions.

"And yes I did start the fight, but it wasn't because Malfoy was teasing someone, he called Hermione a Mudblood. I was just sick of hearing him calling her that all the time," Harry said as he glared over at Draco.

"And the other things?" Dumbledore asked. Harry merely nodded his head affirmatively. "Very well, I believe you Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said.

"Dumbledore," Snape began before he was motioned into silence. 

"Now, now Serverus," Dumbledore began, "let's not gloss over the obvious. It is no secret to the student population, teachers, or myself of Draco's views on Muggleborns. I do not find it hard to believe that he would address Ms. Granger in that way. Draco I am taking away twenty points and assigning you a detention to be served with Prof. Snape." Dumbledore said as he looked at the blonde over his half moon specs. 

Snape was about to object again when he was once again signaled to remain quiet. "Do not worry, Harry will not go unpunished Serverus. Harry, though you did not attack Prof. Snape physically, you cannot address teachers that way; especially with something as serious as a Death Eater," Dumbledore lectured him. Though both knew that he was really lecturing Harry on addressing Snape a Death Eater in front of Draco. 

"Sixty points from Gryffindor Harry, and I will also be assigning you a detention," Dumbledore said. Harry signed in relief. He could handle a detention and knew that he could easily win those points back. But Harry's relief disappeared when Dumbledore finished his sentence.

"…with Prof. Snape."

Snape who was about to object to such a pathetic punishment before he heard Dumbledore finished his sentence. An evil smile spread across the Potion Master's lips.

"You and Draco shall be serving your detentions together. Now I believe you two are late for your next classes. I'm sure you wont object to letting any injuries heal the old fashioned way, it'll help you learn your lesson better. Now run along. Serverus, please shut the door behind the two boys, I have a bit of information I wish to discuss with you," Dumbledore said.

Harry and Draco both nodded to the Headmaster, Draco also nodded to Snape, and the two walked out of the room. Once outside of the room Draco turned to Harry and smirked. "Congratulations Potter, I didn't know you had it in you." Harry looked at Draco; he was obviously talking about Harry's comment to Snape. "But you got the batboy part wrong, whatever a batboy is."

"How do you know if I got it wrong if you don't even know what it is," Harry asked the boy suspiciously. Why was he being so nice to Harry after being in two fights?

"It just sounded like you thought Snape and myself were on the same side," Draco explained.

"Aren't you?" Harry asked.

"No, though I doubt you believe me." Draco replied.

"I don't." Harry answered.

"I didn't think so." Draco smirked at Harry. 

The two continued to walk down the hall. They both took the same turns and staircases. They looked at each other every minute or so. They both stopped and stared at each other.

"Why are you following me Malfoy!" Harry asked.

"Me? You're the one following me," Draco shot back. "What class do you have next," he asked Harry.

"I have—" Harry paused and looked at Draco, "we both have Dueling, don't we?" 

Draco rolled his eyes and continued walking. They reached the Dueling classroom and Draco held open the door. Harry looked at him suspiciously. 

"Let's just hope that they never pair us up Potter," Malfoy said as he sneered at Harry.

Harry laughed openly. "Scared Malfoy?"

Draco smiled challengingly, "You wish."

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So how'd you guys like it? I know I borrowed the last two lines from the CoS movie, but I couldn't really think of a nice ending to the chapter and I didn't wanna wait another day to upload it. So sorry if the ending part of the chapter sucks, (that's what I kinda wrote really fast so I could upload tonight instead of tomorrow night) but I think you'll like it for the most part. A lot of people have been asking for some more sexual related stuff in the story, so that's where the dream and beginning scene came from. I originally though it'd be like a page or two long, but it ended up being like four, so I never got to Dueling. BUT I did get Potions in. Oh, and I didn't make up Harry's scene at the beginning. It's actually something that happened when a bunch of us slept over my friend's house last year. One of the guys (not me) got a woody when we all woke up and we took pictures and then woke him up. Haha, we made copies and showed a bunch of people. The guy (my friend Julian) was so mad, lol he beat the crap outta us. Not really, I just got punched in the face, but it was worth it. Good memories. But yeah, so I'll put the chapter poll and I'll upload this.

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**CHAPTER SEVEN POLL:**

1. What did you think of Snape's character? (And don't worry, if he wasn't mean enough, wait till the detention scene.) I wasn't exactly sure how to write his character. I never really liked him, so it's hard to write a character that you don't like.

2. What do you think of Draco's character? I know his moods kinda swing back and forth a lot. One minute he'll be pissed at Harry, and the next he'll be acting semi-nice. But I'm just kind of feeling his character out. Seeing how I like him to act. I'm really leaning towards the sarcastic and arrogant Draco rather than the evil Draco. I don't know, what are your thoughts? How about how he is acting to Harry? Help me out!

3. What'd you think of the Potions class? What did you hate/love? What would you want to happen in future classes? Maybe any potion ideas that can be tested out in class?

4. Any opinions on Harry's "incident" at the beginning? More of that? Less of that? It really doesn't fit in with the rest of the story, but I'm just wondering what your thoughts were.

5. What do you think of Ginny's character? Some have mentioned that they don't want Ginny acting like a whore or following Harry around like a dog. Don't worry, she's not gonna let Harry in her pants like that. And she wont jump at the chance to be with him. Most of the people that have reviewed and emailed me have asked to have the romance played out a little. But I don't know, after this chapter maybe that has changed. What do you guys want?

6. Ok, Dueling class is the next chapter. I'll tell you that the new teacher is kind of like a Lockhart, except he really knows what he's doing. Anything you want to see? Maybe you want to make up a curse and see it played out during the class?

7. Anything in general you want to see happen or not happen in this story? You guys know that I ask for your input because I really use it. So any ideas, throw them at me. Doesn't hurt any.

So like I say in all the chapters, if you want me to email you next time I update, just leave your emails in a review and I'll email next time I update. Sorry it took so long, hopefully the next one will be out sooner. But this is so far my longest chapter (18 pages) so hopefully that made up for it a little. So go review! I'm hoping to break a hundred this chapter! 

-gottaBwritin

theloudwoods@yahoo.com****


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